Scoop: How the DNC plans to run out the clock for Biden

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

The Democratic National Committee is quietly steaming ahead with plans to technically nominate President Biden weeks before the party's convention next month, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: It's the latest effort by Biden's team to stamp out the Democratic rebellion that's been pushing for the president to step aside since his bad performance in the June 27 debate.

• Once Biden receives votes from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates, it will become exceedingly difficult to remove him from atop the Democratic presidential ticket.
• The DNC's current plan is to train state party chairs next week on how to conduct the electronic voting in a secure way. The window for voting is likely to open on July 29 and conclude by Aug. 5, according to people familiar with the matter.
• If the working plan for a "virtual roll call" holds, Biden just has to outlast his party's critics for about two more weeks.
• For the 81-year-old Biden, time finally may be on his side.

What they're saying: "We look forward to nominating Joe Biden through a virtual roll call and celebrating with fanfare together in Chicago in August alongside the 99 percent of delegates who are supporting the Biden-Harris ticket," Jamie Harrison, the chairman of the DNC, told Axios is a statement.

• "We have not announced or finalized any schedules yet," a DNC spokesperson said.

What we're hearing: Some delegates are concerned that the DNC is trying to jam them by moving up the voting deadline.

• "Behind the scenes, people at the Biden campaign and DNC are working to put in the fix," Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a Biden delegate from Maryland, wrote to her fellow state delegates last week, according to an email obtained by Axios.
• "Put simply, they are trying to shut down the process earlier. We can't allow it," she wrote. "I am asking you to ask the DNC to stop pushing for an early vote."
• "There's an information vacuum," said Chris Dempsey, a longtime Democratic activist in Massachusetts who is working to inform delegates of their role at the convention.
• "The delegates we talk to have heard very little from the state parties or the DNC."

Zoom out: In late May, the Democratic National Committee announced plans to nominate its ticket via a virtual roll call weeks before the party's convention in Chicago, which starts Aug. 19. But they didn't provide a firm date.

• The DNC's stated reason for front-running the nomination — Ohio's Aug. 7 deadline for ballot access — is no longer relevant because Ohio changed its law. The state's new deadline is Sept. 1.
• Internally, DNC officials rarely mention Ohio as the reason to push forward with an earlier date, according a Democratic official who's been briefed on the planning.
• "This election comes down to nothing less than saving our democracy from a man who has said he wants to be a dictator on 'day one,' " Harrison said in his statement.

• "So we certainly are not going to leave the fate of this election in the hands of MAGA Republicans in Ohio that have tried to keep President Biden off of the general election ballot."

Meanwhile, Biden and his team are arguing that his nomination is a foregone conclusion.

• "I'm the nominee of this party because 14 million Democrats like you voted for me in the primaries," he said Friday in Detroit.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who was the first member of Congress to call for Biden to step aside, told Axios in a statement: "Those so eager to overly protect President Biden ignore his own words inviting anyone questioning his nomination to do so at the convention."

Zoom in: Some Biden advisers think Biden can run out the clock on the uprising within the party, as long as he survives just a few more days.

• Media attention already has shifted from Biden after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday. The selection of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as Trump's running mate will further divert attention from Biden.
• Congressional Democrats say their concern over Biden's candidacy has taken a backseat since Trump was shot.
• Hours before the shooting in Butler, Pa., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) paid a visit to Biden, but neither side gave much of a readout. Schumer called it a "good meeting."

Stephen Neukam contributed reporting.

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/16/biden-dnc-vote-nomination-states-2024-election

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

Looks like Joe will be able to run out the clock on this.

 

[Finance85]

The short timeout for Congressional Dems and the media kind of fizzled out with the Lester Holt interview, and the Dems and media being underwhelmed by Biden's response to the Trump shooting.

It's really amazing how much the media becomes like sharks, even when it goes against their normal political bias. Biden is down and struggling and they continue to go after him, making him out to be even worse than he already is. I can't imagine Lester Holt conducting that kind of interview 6 months ago.