Speculation has been mounting over Joe Biden’s future as the Democrat’s official candidate for the U.S. Presidential Election following his performance at the first debate on Friday (Australia time).
Biden, 81, went head-to-head against Donald Trump, 78, in the CNN-hosted debate. After the debate, U.S. media outlets categorised his performance as a “struggle” and a “poor showing”.
Can he be replaced?
Joe Biden
Joe Biden is the oldest U.S. President in history. He previously served as Vice President under Barack Obama between 2009 and 2017.
He’s been a politician for most of his life, having been first elected to the U.S. Senate just weeks before his 30th birthday. He has openly spoken about living with and overcoming his stutter.
If Biden were to carry through with a second four-year presidential term, he would leave the White House at the age of 86.
Criticism
After the first debate, criticism of Biden has largely been centred on moments where he stopped mid-sentence and fumbled multiple times. Others have commented on his raspy voice and repeated coughing.
Some Democrats and major party donors have since told U.S. media there are widespread concerns about his ability to carry on, urging an alternative candidate to step forward.
Former Democrat candidate Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden in 2020 to try to gain the party’s nomination, urged Biden to step down.
Posting on X, Yang said: “What’s Joe Biden’s superpower? That he’s a good guy who will do the right thing for the country.
“In this case, that’s stepping aside and letting the DNC [Democratic National Convention] choose another nominee.”
Replacement
Major U.S. political parties must go through a formal process of electing their nominee for President, known as the ‘primaries and caucuses’.
Joe Biden won the Democrat primaries, which is expected of a sitting President running for re-election. In doing so, he has become what’s called the party’s “presumptive nominee”.
The Democrats will officially confirm Biden as their candidate at the National Convention from August 19-22. In modern U.S. political history, a nominee has never been replaced after winning the primaries.
Scenario 1
If Joe Biden concedes to pressure, he would stand aside as the presidential candidate, giving way to someone else.
The Vice President would be the most obvious choice to replace Biden, meaning Kamala Harris would be put forward as the candidate for the Democrat party. However, Harris has suffered her own low approval ratings.
Some commentators have also suggested this could create a legal challenge over whether the Democrats’ primary election race was valid.
Scenario 2
Sam Garrett from the U.S. Studies Centre said the Democrats still have two months to change the rules about how they nominate their candidate before the Democratic National Convention.
The party could “theoretrically change” the way it picks candidates and choose someone else to run against Donald Trump.
Speaking to TDA, Garrett said it would be unlikely, as it amounts to “an extraordinary action if done without Biden’s consent as the presumptive nominee”.
