Report Says Democrats Looking At Nominating Biden Early To ‘Stamp Out Intra-Party Chatter’ of Replacing Him
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Bloomberg reported on Monday that the Democratic National Committee is looking to formally renominate President Joe Biden as soon as mid-July in order “to stamp out intra-party chatter of replacing him after last week’s poor debate performance.”
The report by Mario Parker and Gregory Korte noted that while the Democratic Party’s convention is not set to begin until Aug. 19th, there have been movements to nominate Biden earlier to ensure he was on the ballot in Ohio, which had moved its deadline up to Aug. 7th. Ohio has since pushed the deadline back. However, the party has largely resolved that issue and is now considering July 21st as the day to nominate Biden, which would be done virtually.
UPDATE: Bloomberg later added to its report a statement from the DNC that poured cold water on the idea that Biden would be nominated earlier. The report added:
The DNC disputed the notion that the early nomination was a response to the fallout from Biden’s debate performance, saying its “false” and pointing to the previous Ohio ballot deadline as the impetus.
“We’ve said for weeks that the DNC would hold a virtual roll call in the lead-up to our in-person convention as a result of the OH GOP’s bad-faith attempts to keep Joe Biden off of their general election ballot,” Democratic National Committee communications director Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement.
Bloomberg’s original report raised eyebrows as it said that Democrats are considering “helping to quell talk of a potential replacement or an open convention following Biden’s cataclysmic debate against former President Donald Trump.”
“Biden’s lackluster showing last Thursday sparked calls from some prominent Democrats for him to suspend his campaign in favor of passing the torch to someone else,” concluded the original reporting. Bloomberg also added that the earlier nomination could blunt Trump’s convention bump:
The July 21 date would come 10 days after Trump’s sentencing in Manhattan for his felony conviction for trying to conceal hush-money payments to hide an alleged affair with an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. And it would happen just three days after Trump is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
The DNC already altered its rules to allow a change to convention dates and voting procedures, including a possible roll-call vote “before the delegates have convened in-person in Chicago.”
Read the full report here.
Editor’s note: This report was updated to reflect additional updates to Bloomberg’s original reporting.
