(IntegrityTimes.com) – Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ former aide has advised the Democratic National Committee to agree on a backup plan in case President Joe Biden drops out of the 2024 presidential election. Jeff Weaver, who was Sanders’ adviser in his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, stressed the need for the party to be transparent with voters following the 81-year-old incumbent president’s poor performance in a one-on-one debate with former President Donald Trump.
Following the debate on June 27, which raised further concerns about Biden’s age and whether he is fit enough for another term in the White House, Weaver told reporters on June 30 that the party should have a process in place to avoid “chaos” in the event Biden chooses to step down. Despite his lackluster performance in the debate, Biden has stood his ground and continues to insist he is the most suitable candidate to lead the country.
Despite being officially independent, Sanders has historically worked with the Democrats. In the summer following Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, Sanders and Biden met in the Oval Office to address the shared concerns of the former rivals. Weaver highlighted that there were several viable options who could replace Biden as the party’s presidential candidate, and who still have enough time to campaign leading up to the November vote.
The struggles that the incumbent president faces in unscripted debates without the aid of a teleprompter have made major Democratic donors hesitant to back the president. John Morgan, who works as a lawyer in Florida and is a major donor to Biden’s campaign, noted how tanned Biden looked the day after the debate compared to his deathly pallor during the debate. He blamed Biden’s senior advisor Anita Dunn, who he called “Anita Dunce” in a post on X, for “over-coaching” the president before the debate.
At 78 years of age, Trump is only three years younger than the incumbent president, and Weaver stressed that concerns about Biden related more to his physical and mental fitness than his age. Weaver, who also worked on Democratic Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips’ short-lived 2024 campaign, suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and California Representative Ro Khanna would be the leading candidates to replace Biden. Harris is also, like Biden, suffering from poor approval ratings, however.
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