Will Biden crash the convention?

Next Monday (August 19), the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago, Illinois. Voting will take place that day – a change from past Conventions, which nominated Presidential candidates on Wednesday and Vice-Presidential candidates on Thursday. Everyone expects the delegates to nominate Vice-President Kamala Harris for President and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) for Vice-President. But none of the delegates who will vote next week actually have a mandate from primary voters to vote for either of these two candidates for anything. Now at least one influencer is suggesting that President Joe Biden will come to the Convention uninvited. He would then ask his delegates to nominate him after all. So it’s worth reviewing how Joe Biden came to this pass – after two major newspapers broke further details.

The latest news to break on the Biden front

The Daily Mail and The New York Times each broke a story this week. The Times dropped its story two days ago, and the Mail broke its story today. Until this week, the White House always insisted that President Biden decided on his own to quit the race. But few outside of the die-hard Democratic rank-and-file actually believed that. In fact, the famous historian Seymour Hersh reported that Barack Obama had laid an ultimatum on Biden. (Cullen Linebarger of The Gateway Pundit left a summary of Hersh’s subscription-only report.) Get out, Hersh paraphrased Obama as saying, or Vice-President Harris starts gathering signatures on an Amendment XXV Section 4 declaration.

Biden could have contested that declaration, forcing Harris to double down on it. Congress would then have had to deal with it – and Democrats would have had to depend on Republicans to cooperate. (To sustain a contested Section 4 declaration requires two-thirds majorities in both chambers of Congress.)

But according to, first the Times, then the Mail, Barack Obama did not lead this effort, nor lay the ultimatum. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California did that. The Times piece, consisting mainly of an interview with Pelosi, was painfully short on details and consisted mainly of retrospectives. But the Mail piece did give details. Between it and The Gateway Pundit’s archives, one can now construct a complete timeline.

Earliest setup – before the debate

On June 17, The Daily Mail first reported rumors from “insiders” that several prominent Democrats were planning to replace Biden. The Clintons, Obama, Pelosi, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) were all involved. Though they hadn’t decided definitely, they would see how Biden did on his June 27 debate.

As everyone remembers, Biden performed disastrously in that debate. (Donald Trump would later say debating Biden was “surreal.”) Naturally the plan to push Biden out went into action – but Biden was being stubborn. Axios reported this irresistible-force-meets-immovable-object story on July 7. The plotters were going to the donors, asking them to withhold funds – as some did. Biden knew what was happening, and called the donors (“the elites”) on it.

Tellingly, on Wednesday, July 10, Pelosi refused to endorse Biden as the nominee of their party.

On Thursday (July 11), Actor George Clooney called on Biden to withdraw – apparently on Obama’s and Pelosi’s instructions.

Then came the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the dismissal of the Trump Documents Case, and the Republican Convention. No doubt conscious of these developments, Pelosi became frantic. Biden, she told Politico columnist Jonathan Martin, would go down in defeat and drag down the entire Party with him. As if she needed any more things to worry about, Trump delivered a marathon acceptance speech, and demonstrated not only his endurance but his ability to hold an audience’ attention for that long. For ninety minutes he spoke – and Pelosi despaired of Biden matching that.

When things came to a head

The day before Trump’s marathon speech, Biden “tested positive for COVID” while in Las Vegas. For reasons that remain unclear, his staff evacuated him to Delaware aboard his executive transport – which oversped to fly to Delaware as swifly as a C-25 747 can fly. Once in his Rehoboth Beach home, Biden began to fume. He took a swipe at Trump.

But anyone listening to Trump’s speech would assume that if Biden couldn’t understand it, that was his fault, not Trump’s. In any case, CBS News reporter Robert Costa reported that Biden and “members of his inner circle” resented Obama and Pelosi still trying to push him out of the race.

Then on Sunday (July 21), everything changed. Again, it was Pelosi, not Obama, who spoke to Biden by telephone. Nor did she threaten to gather Amendment XXV Section 4 signatures. Instead she threatened to release internal polling data showing that Biden would lose. This comes from the Mail’s sources:

As Biden nursed his COVID infection that fateful Saturday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent an urgent message to the president: She was prepared to go public with her concerns that he could not defeat Donald Trump in November.

The ultimatum was clear: Drop out now – or Pelosi trashes her political ally, and friend of over 50 years, on the global stage.

Four sources with intimate knowledge of the situation independently claimed that such a message was relayed, with one particularly well-placed source saying that a phone call took place in which Pelosi told Biden she would publish brutal polling figures to back up her attack.

Either way, her demand was said to be so forceful that it sparked a ‘come to Jesus moment’ for the president, who only then began to draft the letter announcing his withdrawal.

Pelosi and Biden both deny that any telephonic conversation took place. Nevertheless she was very quick to endorse Vice-President Harris after Biden posted his letter of withdrawal. In fact, Politico paraphrased her as saying they “could do this the easy way or the hard way.”

According to both the Times and the Mail, Pelosi and Biden are Not Speaking to one another. And in fact, Pelosi has taken credit for the ouster since August 8, in an interview with The New Yorker.

Team Biden and Team Pelosi still at odds

Furthermore, the Biden and Pelosi teams are still at odds. Anita Dunn – who recently has quit the team – blamed Pelosi for losing control of the House last Midterms. Of course it doesn’t occur to any prominent Democrats that the policies they advocate and put into force and effect, cost them the House last Midterms.

Biden, for his part, acknowledged that concern for down-ticket races influenced “his” decision to withdraw. But he also admitted the role Pelosi played.

The Mail piece suggests that Biden, however conciliatory he might sound in public, remains bitter. Jill Biden doesn’t seem able to hide her bitterness; it was on display for all to see when the two traveled to New Orleans earlier this week. According to the Mail, “Jill is … known to hold a grudge.”

Might that “grudge” boil over into an attempt to hijack the Convention? Michael Duffy on YouTube seems to think it might.

But in all honesty, that’s speculation. Lately, Biden and Harris both appeared at an event – and the entire crowd cried “Boo!” on them both. Apart from who did what to whom, neither seems able to compete with Trump on policy. So it doesn’t matter which of them runs for President on the Democratic ticket.

Time will tell whether Biden will do anything but deliver a speech by teleconference.