House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, predicted legal challenges in some states if Biden is not the Democratic presidential nominee and fights over voting access if the president chooses to drop out of the campaign.
Democrats are increasingly calling for Biden to drop out of the race and field another presidential candidate, and while many in the party seem committed to Vice President Harris, it’s unclear whether a new candidate would easily get on the ballot in all 50 states.
“[Democrats] “Each state has its own election system, that’s their constitutional system,” Johnson said Sunday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “That’s the way it is. And in some states, that’s a major hurdle.”
“Joe Biden was chosen through a lengthy democratic process of 14 million people who were selected in the primaries,” he continued. “It will be very interesting to see if, behind the scenes, the Democratic Party, the so-called democratic party, does some shuffling and puts someone else at the top of their list.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-Va.) has also joined calls within and outside the Democratic Party for Biden to drop out of the race, fearing he will not be able to beat former President Trump in November’s election.
But Biden and his campaign remain adamant that the president will be the Democratic nominee, despite growing calls to do so.
“Joe Biden has made it very clear that he is in this race and he is in it to win. Further, he is the presumptive nominee and has no plans to field an alternative candidate,” Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign’s battleground states director, wrote in a memo released after the Republican National Convention.
The presidential race remains close, but the lead has widened in recent days, with Trump leading Biden by 2.5 percentage points in national polls, according to The Hill/Decision Desk average.
