Man, I hate reading Axios and Politico (they are such a-holes, the worst of the current moment) but I do it because they are the mirror into our highly toxic and dysfunctional political elite. And, every once in a while, it pays off and you get an article that is useful. This piece notes that:
President Biden beat back the initial public campaign by Democrats to oust him from the party's presidential ticket, swiftly and decisively. But very-connected Democrats, mostly veterans of the Obama and Clinton administrations, are plotting hourly to get him to withdraw quickly.
- They're commissioning polls, lobbying former presidents, back-channeling Democratic leaders, organizing donors and taking the fight to Biden in a very public way.
- They're the unofficial Committee to Unelect the President. The mission: Push Biden out of the presidential race — the sooner, the better.
The reporting is actually pretty thin and basically innuendos and rumors but the fact the authors are VandeHei and Allen is meaningful. They are both former Post reporters and the founders of Axios (and Politico) and epitomize the gross, insider nexus between political Washington and the media elites. So, they are the ones getting phone calls about Biden, etc. They are the refs being worked and so they know who is doing it and just decided to name some names…
How it works: The anti-Biden Democrats are trading texts, emails and polling, fighting fellow Democrats on TV and X, and circulating stories and arguments by sympathetic journalists and columnists, including Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias.
- Many are in conversation with lawmakers to push their leaders to squeeze Biden and his inner circle. They know Biden and his family seem unmovable — so they hope for the use of overwhelming force by the Obamas + Clintons + Schumer + Jeffries + Pelosi
They were pretty lazy naming the names. I would guess it’s just the tip of the iceberg. But I am sure they are at least getting calls from this bunch (and many others):
The committee includes:
- Former Obama aides: The strained relationship between Obama and Biden extends to their former aides, including David Axelrod (Obama's ruthlessly pragmatic chief strategist) and the influential "Pod Save America" guys. Biden has reportedly called Axelrod a "prick," and threw shade at him — "Oh! You're kidding" — during Monday's call-in on "Morning Joe." The pod guys — Obama alumni Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer — have irritated Biden's camp by arguing for a new candidate. Lovett writes that it's "hard to deny that in the two weeks since the debate, it's the arrogant and small Joe Biden we've seen most."
- Former Clinton advisers: Carville, appearing all over the cable dial, says unsparingly that a new candidate is inevitable, whether the president admits it or not. Keeping him would be "an idiotic choice for the future of this country," Carville told Anderson Cooper on CNN.
- Elected Dems: Massive pressure is building from rank-and-file members of the Democratic caucus. One Democratic senator (Peter Welch of Vermont) and 17 House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to drop out. Scores more are furious at the White House for pushing them to support a president they view as unelectable.
- Swing-seat Dems: This is the group that really matters. Vulnerable Democrats have a clear-eyed view of the president's prospects. These Dems will abandon him — some already have — if they sense their seats are in jeopardy.
- The donor class: George Clooney, who headlined the largest fundraiser in Democratic Party history last month, is the leading voice of a growing number of Hollywood types who want Biden to end his candidacy. The group includes Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel (Rahm's brother).
- Late-night liberals: Stephen Colbert — who moderated a major Biden fundraiser at Radio City in March — strongly suggested the president should step aside: "I think that Biden debated as well as Abraham Lincoln, if you dug him up right now." Jon Stewart has escalated pleas for the nominee to be someone else. He hosted Favreau and Vietor on his podcast yesterday.
- N.Y. Times Opinion: Debate-night columns by Tom Friedman and Nick Kristoff gave way to full-throated editorials — all saying Biden must go.
- Biden aides busily leaking: "Some longtime aides and advisers to President Biden," the N.Y. Times reports, "have become increasingly convinced that he will have to step aside from the campaign, and in recent days they have been trying to come up with ways to persuade him that he should."
VandeHei and Allen make it clear that this group is working together, that this is a coordinated effort
Members of this notional committee tell us there's no hidden hand — no command and control. Instead, these are all people who've worked together on past campaigns.
- "No one is more than one person away from everyone else," a central player told us. And almost all are one step away from former presidents Obama or Clinton.
The piece also notes that they — this Committee to Unelect the President — are playing chicken with the Biden Campaign and basically understand that it is probably not working but are doing it, damaging him and his campaign anyway
Reality check: No one's sure the pressure campaign is working. It all depends on Biden, who controls the party's delegates and cannot be defeated for the nomination if he stays in — no matter how bleak the outlook for November.
- "You need a psychiatrist more than a spin doctor," a veteran operative told me.
The big picture: A "fatalism" and "sense of resignation" grip the party from coast to coast. "The Clinton diaspora is freaking the hell out," said one alumnus of Clinton's White House. "But all these people going on the record aren't helping. All it seems to have done is cause the Bidens to dig in deeper."
So, all you PSA, Hacks on Tap/Axelrod fans, know this: they ARE the a-holes creating this very toxic moment that, IMHO, is making more likely that Trump wins in November.