Veteran journalist Mark Halperin shared on Fox News Friday why Democrats wouldn’t run someone other than former president Joe Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
The Democratic Party pushed Biden out of the presidential race following a disastrous debate performance against then-former President Donald Trump. During an appearance on “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Halperin provided deeper insight into the decision-making process that led Democrats to forego putting fresh candidates into the race.
“So you didn’t need investigative reporting or these books to know that Joe Biden had substantial mental decline,” Halperin told host Bret Baier. “You just needed a C-SPAN subscription. So that’s not the revelation. To me, the thing that’s in these books, which is true, is that Joe Biden, despite his mental decline, agreed with Barack Obama that she couldn’t win.”
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The core revelation from recent publications, Halperin said, is the consensus between Biden and former President Obama about Harris’ ability to win the presidency.
“Part of why he hung on and part of why Barack Obama was not eager for her to be the nominee was that they wanted to beat Donald Trump. And so they faced this problem. They didn’t think that Biden could do it,” Halperin added. “Biden did, but Obama didn’t and others. Pelosi didn’t. Schumer didn’t. But they didn’t think she could either.”
Halperin said as time ticked down, the absence of alternative candidates who were willing to step forward at the last minute cemented Harris’ position by default rather than widespread party confidence.
“No one else wanted to run. It was this horrible dilemma. Every day he waited to get out, she got a stronger grip on the nomination because no one was going to challenge her at the last minute,” Halperin said.
After leaving office, Obama distanced himself from the Democratic Party, which was left in disarray, according to a new book “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.” The book details how the Clintons, Biden, former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile and other party operatives worked to rebuild the party’s infrastructure after Obama’s departure as they aimed to prevent far-left members from taking control and maintaining influence among party loyalists.
It was previously revealed that donors were warned by top Biden aides that replacing him with Harris would be a huge mistake. This advice was aggressively communicated as Biden’s team, in an effort to secure his nomination following a disastrous debate performance in late June 2024, highlighted what they said were Harris’ shortcomings.
Weeks after that debate performance, Biden’s aides and allies said he was still capable of winning the general election and also said that he defeated Trump in 2020. Biden, however, ultimately withdrew from the race on July 21 due to a halt in campaign funding and pressure from Democratic politicians and influencers to replace him on the ticket.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News)
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