With signs growing that President Joe Biden may not be up to another grueling campaign and his polls showing Democratic desire for an alternative, insiders are looking for signals that the 80-year-old might be shuffling to the exits.
Democratic pollster John Zogby has raised one of the more intriguing scenarios that he said would be a sure sign that Biden is backing out of the race: getting even less popular Vice President Kamala Harris to resign and take another job.
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That would potentially solve two issues. One is Biden getting out of the way for a more popular choice such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The other is making sure the party isn’t stuck with Harris, who loses in most polls to Republican front runner former President Donald Trump and his chief competitor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“How do you handle a problem like Kamala,” Zogby said in discussing Harris with his son, fellow pollster and John Zogby Strategies Managing Partner Jeremy Zogby.
John Zogby said the sign of a major 2024 shakeup would be for Harris to take another job as United Nations ambassador or as a Supreme Court associate justice if a slot came open. That would then allow Biden to pull out of the race, he said on their weekly podcast.
“Will we see Joe Biden step aside, dropout? And if he does, will there be a clue? And by that I mean, will Kamala Harris step down as vice president and be appointed to a special position?” asked Zogby.
“That would be a signal that Biden may be stepping down and realizing that in stepping down, he would need to help the party block Vice President Harris from being the nominee of the party,” he added.
Jeremy Zogby said another sign is to look for an uncontrollable and controversial story coming out of the White House or a pressure campaign from the media.
He pointed to the cocaine investigation inside the White House as one example.
“I’ll put it this way,” he explained. “After an unprecedented barrage of coverage of the president over the last three-four weeks consistently portraying significant weaknesses -- all while Gavin Newsom is emerging in the spotlight -- this breaking news appears to up the ante. The Biden family or staff may very well have nothing to do with this. But how will the public ultimately perceive it following the recent string of relentless negative portrayals?” said Jeremy Zogby.
He also cited last week’s hyped news that Biden naps with a CPAP on.
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Jeremy Zogby said he was on the Drudge Report, which was playing up Biden's use of the breathing machine. “The big headline was Biden has facial indentations, and they took the worst possible picture of Biden,” he said.
Zogby added, “The fact that one of the largest aggregate news sites, which by the way used to be right-wing, which is now frequented by all ideologies and parties, especially liberals…is a red flashing signal that the knives continue to be out for Biden.”
The media, he said, is “scrutinizing everything that he's saying and doing, and that is not good. I think that that is a signal.”