As speculation continues to mount over whether President Joe Biden might be replaced as a candidate in the 2024 election, Democrats are now quietly admitting that Biden will not be on the ticket.
Top Democrats and donors are “whispering on the sidelines of events, emails, furtive phone calls” about possible replacement candidates, according to multiple party insiders who told CNN that Biden “won’t actually be running for reelection.”
Aides say they believe that time is running out and that Biden’s lack of real campaign activity indicates that he is not interested in mounting a serious run.
The new report follows months of suggestions that California Gov. Gavin Newsom could step in to replace Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee next year.
Kicking off a campaign to raise his national profile, Newsom aired a political ad in Florida last summer, targeting Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party. DeSantis, who has now formally entered the presidential race, responded a year later with a campaign ad slamming Newsom’s performance as governor, a sign that Newsom as the lead candidate is at least possible.
Last week, Newsom stopped in Florida as part of a red state campaign tour, attacking the GOP on guns, race, voting rights, and abortion.
Recent polling shows that 70 percent of Americans don’t want Biden to run for a second term, including more than half of registered Democrats.
That survey data comes as the president’s former allies in left-wing media have begun to turn on him, urging him to stop his bid for a second term, a clear sign many who share his political leanings are seeking to oust him.
A piece in The Atlantic — a reliable friend for progressives and Democrats — was published on July 7 urging Biden to step aside, citing his age, an issue also highlighted by NPR this past February.
Others are noticing the peeling away of support for the president from a media establishment that has protected him and his administration for years and are saying it is the clearest sign yet Democrats are preparing to wash their hands of Biden.
“Yeah, I’ve said for a while that I thought was gonna be Newsom. And I noticed that when Newsom went on Hannity and a little bit before that,” Mike Cernovich, filmmaker, author, and media personality, said during a recent podcast.
“So the media wants Newsom. That’s why Joe Biden is getting [actual] media coverage,” Cernovich explained, noting the left-leaning news organizations now covering potentially damaging issues they’ve previously ignored.
.@Cernovich details Corporate Media, Democrat plot to replace Joe Biden with Gavin Newsom in 2024: "There's a lot of in-fighting" pic.twitter.com/FRZCLLnc0G
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 12, 2023
“The media clearly doesn’t think Biden’s gonna be in, and they believe they can push him out, which they can, they can change public perception on him pretty quickly,” Cernovich stated. “And then they bring in Newsom, and then you have a general election with Newsom, which concerns me way more than Biden, which is probably why the media wants him. Because I would be way more worried about Newsom than Biden.”
