6mo ago

Hakeem Jeffries says he met with president; big Democratic donors reportedly freeze money in objection to Biden candidacy – live

www.theguardian.com Hakeem Jeffries reportedly did not offer Biden his endorsement in private meeting – as it happened

Top House Democrat shared caucus’s ‘heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward’ with Biden but did not endorse president’s campaign

The House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said he shared lawmakers’ “insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward” in a private meeting with Joe Biden yesterday.

The meeting came after more than a dozen House Democrats publicly called on the president to end his bid for re-election after his stumbling performance against Donald Trump in their first debate.

Jeffries had promised that he would talk to Biden after speaking with all of the 213 Democrats in the House of Representatives, and, in a letter to lawmakers today, he indicated that he has done so, without elaborating on Biden’s response.

Deep-pocketed Democratic donors are putting multimillion-dollar pledges on hold and saying they won’t hand over the money until Joe Biden abandons his re-election campaign, the New York Times reports.

Others are holding off on giving any more money to Future Forward, the largest Super Pac supporting the president’s campaign.

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He needs to step down. I fought this for a while, but he's lost the confidence of his party, and you can't come back from that. Not in a few short months. Any path forward for Biden from here will be a monumental struggle to get the support needed to beat Trump.
- Who is the best replacement and how do we choose?
  EDIT: It was a collective "We," people. As in, all of us who aren't fascists. I'm well aware of how the democratic party chooses candidates.
  
  Harris is the obvious choice, though I would be thrilled if it went to someone else. The DNC, unfortunately, will have to discuss amongst the delegates who will get the final nod. What's important is that we have unity going forward - which is one of the reasons why it's so important for Biden to step down and get onboard with this.
  
  Man, if only they had given us a real primary 🙄
  
  Yeah. Or rather, Biden shouldn't have announced he was running for a second term, since as soon as he announced, any serious contenders cooled their ambitions. I understand that you don't get into politics without a little bit of an ego problem, but it really fucked us.
  
  I have to say : I think AOC is FAR more electable right now than Harris. And we definitely need the most electable person we can find.
  
  If the DNC doesn't like Sanders - enough that they manipulated his defeat to Clinton - just how receptive do you think they are to AOC being their candidate?
  
  He could full out resign, putting Harris in office and be able to appoint a new VP that inspires more confidence than Harris. Could satisfy party brass who want to control the appointment for getting Biden out.
  Or he could drop out of the race and endorse Harris at an open convention which would be more democratic.
  Hold a national primary over the next month.
  
  people want to replace biden because they don't think he can win the election, not because they want harris as president
  why would biden saying "no totally trust me guys i'll step down for harris after i've won" make him any more likely to win, especially after he already told the world he'd be a one-term president?
  
  I think they were suggesting that he resign before the election, and Harris chooses a new VP
  
  The problem is the convention is happening after the ballot deadline in Ohio, which has historically been waived by the Ohio legislature for both parties, but which has not this year with Republicans in charge. That's why there was going to get a virtual roll call before the convention to nominate Biden. There needs to be a nominee solidified and nominated before the convention or risk having no Democratic candidate for president on the Ohio ballot
  
  That makes too much sense so it will never happen. My vote is for a “Thunderdome Convention.” And we all know Buttigieg would wipe the floor with his Gramsci quotes.
  
  Harris is the only candidate who would be able to access all the money the Biden campaign has already. Anyone else would start from scratch
  
  Which is why Harris needs to be onboard too. And, unfortunately, one of several reasons why she's the most likely candidate.
  
  The issue is contribution limits and what it can be spent on. Harris in control of the money, but not a candidate, means $5k goes to the new candidate and the remaining hundreds of millions become an outside funding entity. That can't pay for staff's salaries or do other sorts of direct spending. It's not an insurmountable hurdle, but it is a pretty meaningful concern. On the plus side, people's donation limits would be reset.
  
  She's just as unlikable as Biden and Clinton. It would be pointless to switch to her when she doesn't bring any enthusiasm from voters.
  
  She'd troll the shit out of Trump in a way neither Biden nor Clinton ever did
  
  Obamna 2.0 and I’m here for it.
  
  I’m subscribed to DNC donor lists and get texts 3, sometimes 4 times a day for donations. Lately, I’ve been getting surveys about Biden’s performance.
  Today, I got a survey asking if I would support Kamala Harris. The entire survey was about Harris. Not sure if that means anything, but it was unexpected. I said I would support her btw, she would enrage Trump.
  
  Harris would lose. She has too much baggage, real.or imagined. And as much as I hate it, this country isn't going to elect a black woman any time soon. 🤦🏽
  
  she has baggage for the left, but that the right would probably find it very difficult to attack
  "she went too hard on criminals" isn't exactly something they can use to their advantage
  
  While I agree, the cold unfortunate reality is that a black woman is a nonstarter for a significant portion of the US population. Being a woman is a hurdle enough, being a black woman is a hell of a climb.
  
  We elected a black man in 2008. A woman won the popular vote in 2016.
  I'm inclined to agree she has an uphill fight, and that I would much prefer other candidates - if we're going to have an uphill battle, let's at least have a charismatic candidate - but Biden is... not really viable at this point.
  
  I appreciate the weight “viable” was carrying in your comment.
  
  .
  
  So… I don’t disagree, and a contested convention (after Biden agreeing to release his delegates saying that he’d love to re-win the nomination but recognizes that the complaints are valid and wants what’s best for the Democrats as a whole) sounds like not a bad strategy.
  There’s one pretty chilling thing though: How difficult to do think it would be for a Russian influence operation, or a GOP one working with a few friendly players in local politics / law enforcement in Chicago, to create a giant violent shit show of cops assaulting protestors and creating the exact types of events that will overshadow anything good that comes out of the convention and turn off a whole bunch of left wing people, because they can’t tell the difference between the Chicago cops doing something and the Democratic Party doing that same thing, if it happens at the convention?
  I don’t think it would be difficult at all. And that’s before even adding in whatever any boogaloo people who want to show up might do.
  I think the DNC could easily be where the fighting in the streets fireworks that continue into November get started for real, and in a way that depresses Democratic voter turnout a lot more than the debate did.
  
  How difficult to do think it would be for a Russian influence operation
  That is the biggest worry rn, esp after The Guardian just reported today there was massive "coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation (that) 'flooded' social media in France, Germany and Italy before the elections to the European parliament."
  
  Yikes. I hadn't even thought about the possibility of violence. Maybe the fact that they've got a slightly better handle on these clandestine operations now than they did in 2016 will help with the Russian ops. I think the risk of right-wing agitators provoking a violent clash is higher, to be perfectly honest. They'll certainly have to take security very seriously if this is the path they choose.
  
  Man I fuckin hope so. Their efforts on Lemmy are just kind of comical, but that’s because those are the 2-ruble-a-day clowns sitting in a big cube farm somewhere. The real pros are perfectly capable of cultivating an online friendship with some armed right-wing loons in or out of the CPD, and nudging things along very effectively in a terrifying direction, I think.
  
  I’ll find your treasure one day, I know it’s there.
  
  The risks today aren't what they were in 1968
  Are you saying there's less risk now than 68? Because, if you weren't aware, we are on the cusp of literally losing the Republic.
  
  .
  
  Which is why we need to do this. Polling shows Biden losing this election. To continue to support him is to hand Trump a victory this fall.
  
  Why are we still pretending that it's our choice?
  
  We don't choose - the DNC does.
  the choice of a nominee is party business — not state law, not federal law, and not constitutional law.
  https://www.factcheck.org/2024/07/qa-how-biden-can-be-replaced-as-the-democratic-nominee/
  
  Lighting round debate showdown at the convention, it’s gonna be great!
  
  Good or bad, no one is going to beat Trump except Biden. I'll take the last 4 years we've had, where he's had times that he seems out if it, but the country is doing a lot better and doesn't seem like we are at each other's throats. If he dies the day before election, I'll vote for his corpse.

65 comments