US President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he will not run for president in November after all. The atmosphere surrounding the politician has been exhausted in recent weeks, after his poor performance against his rival Donald Trump in the first televised presidential candidate debate, but events have not gone his way since then either.
The American news portal Axios wrote on Thursday, based on informed sources, that Biden may announce his withdrawal from the November presidential election at the end of this week. Based on this information, in a Friday broadcast of the Portfolio Checklist, we asked Caroli Pintir, associate professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Pazmany Péter Catholic University and head of the university's Anglo-American Institute, what the implications would be for the Democratic Party if Biden withdraws from the candidacy.
US expert Friday: If Biden is worried about political legacy, he will back down
Pintir spoke about it on the broadcast: It will be an exciting moment if the pullback happens, because since then, no one can know for sure what will happen, as different scenarios are being circulated.
“The obvious thing is to promote the vice presidential candidate, that is, Kamala Harris will be nominated to succeed Biden in the nomination, but many people may consider another idea better, because Kamala Harris’ popularity is not high based on public opinion polls,” the academic said.
He added: Before the withdrawal, the Democratic Party had no good options, and had only to choose between bad and worse options. According to him, what may have pushed the majority of Democrats toward the fact that Biden is leaving is that they can fail more with the president than without him.
“Anyway, I think the logic behind all of this is that I feel that Democrats have more or less predestined to lose the presidential election, or at least don’t have high hopes for it right now, although with a new candidate, that dynamic could still change,” Carolee Painter said Friday.
According to the university associate professor, the worst-case scenario would have been if Biden had stayed, which would have caused many Democratic voters not to go to the polls, and thus the party's congressional candidates would not have received enough votes:
Thus, the president could have dragged with him legislative opportunities for the American left.
The Democratic Convention matters again.
Painter said on the podcast on Friday:
The Democratic Party must make a quick decision.
He said: In American politics, party conventions have traditionally played a decisive role in selecting presidential candidates, but in recent decades the primary system has taken over that role. Now, the Democratic presidential nominee will once again be determined in the General Assembly, which begins on August 19.
For the first time in nearly half a century, there will be real stakes in how delegates decide, and with Biden’s withdrawal, their commitment — that is, they must vote for Biden because of the primary results — ends.
The full interview can be heard on Friday's broadcast of Portfolio Checklist. Spotify-Onthat it Apple Podcaston other major podcast platforms, and here, in the player embedded in the article, from the third bookmark:
Cover image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
