After several days of quiet griping and hoping that President Biden would abandon his re-election campaign on his own, many wealthy Democratic donors are trying to take matters into their own hands. ... A group of them is working to raise as much as $100 million for a sort of escrow fund, called the Next Generation PAC, that would be used to support a replacement candidate. ... Other donors are threatening to withhold contributions not only from Mr. Biden but also from other Democratic groups unless Mr. Biden bows out.
The authors (Kenneth P. Vogel, Theodore Schleifer, & Lauren Hirsch) aren't just speculating. They have the receipts, actual quotes from actual big money donors saying "nope, not this time, not for that guy."
Bill Kristol, with whom I seldom agree on much, opens his Friday musings at The Bulwark with "When, a week from now, President Biden will have withdrawn as a candidate for reelection ..."
My take:
Biden's scheduled for an interview with George Stephanopoulos today, to air on ABC at 8pm Eastern. Quite a few people think (and I agree) that the interview is his "last stand."
I don't expect him to announce his retirement in that interview, but I won't be terribly surprised if he does so either.
I expect that he'll wait to see whether the interview plays well enough with the public to get him back in the game.
I also expect that it will not, and that Kristol is right ... but perhaps a little off on the timing.
The Democrats are holding an early "virtual nomination" instead of waiting until their formal national convention (August 19-22).
Fox News suggests July 21 as the magic date for that nomination vote to be held. Biden needs to do the dropout/endorsement before the vote.
The Republican National Convention is schedule for July 15-18.
If I was a DNC strategist, I'd arrange for Biden to "address the nation" with his dropout/endorsement about the time I expect Donald J. Trump to walk on stage to accept the GOP nomination.
That would give the DNC a couple of days to complete preparations for a virtual nomination vote that doesn't include Biden and does include his endorsed replacement.
It would give the Democrats a month to build up to a huge beauty pageant / rally for the replacement (if I was betting, my money would on Michelle Obama, but I'm FAR from certain enough to bet on it at all -- they might pull a gigantic brain fart and go for Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom) at the physical convention.
And it would steal a crap ton of thunder from the GOP in general and Trump in particular.
But, as always, I could be wrong.
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