A former chief aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)’s presidential campaign said Sunday that the Democratic National Committee needs to clarify an alternative plan in case President Biden chooses to drop out of the race.
Jeff Weaver, who advised Sanders in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and also worked on Rep. Dean Phillips’ (D-Minn.) 2024 presidential campaign, called on the party to be transparent with voters after Biden’s poor performance in last week’s debate raised concerns about his candidacy.
“We would say, if [Biden] “If we could get out, there wouldn’t be any chaos or mayhem,” Weaver said in an interview with Chris Styrewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
“If the president withdraws, I think the DNC should announce that they will hold a few debates in July with the major candidates campaigning across the country,” he continued. “There should be a standard that will select only the ‘serious candidates,’ and then they can go to the convention, make their case, and that will happen.”
“It remains to be seen what Joe Biden will do,” he added, “but I think it’s incumbent on the party, not just to the president but to the membership as a whole, that we have to build a process now to defeat Donald Trump.”
Biden’s performance in the first debate alarmed some Democrats and supporters. The president at times appeared to struggle to gather his thoughts and looked fatigued overall. There have been growing calls among Democrats, including some lawmakers who declined to be named, for Biden to step aside and allow another candidate to win the party’s nomination.
Because the president has already won the primary, he cannot be removed from the party nomination at the convention, so the decision will be left to the president himself.
Weaver said that if Biden were to withdraw, the top contenders would be Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Rep. Ro Khan (D-Calif.).
But he stressed that the issue many voters have with Biden isn’t strictly about his age, but actually about his health and mental capacity.
“You know, this issue isn’t about Biden’s age,” he said. “This is about people’s perception of his vitality. That’s what the issue is. I don’t think this is about age. It’s a much bigger issue.”
A CBS News poll conducted Sunday found that more than 70% of voters believe Biden is not mentally strong enough to continue in the presidency.
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