A hidden hand is behind the growing movement to push President Joe Biden out of the way so a serious candidate can take on former President Donald Trump.
Two reports today revealed that the hand belongs to Biden’s old boss, former President Barack Hussein Obama.
One report surfaced in Politico’s article about the conspiracy, which includes former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Another came from Joe Scarborough on his eponymous Morning Joe on MSNBC.
The two reports come on the heels of actor George Clooney’s appeal for Biden to quit the race because he’s too old to run for president again, let alone serve another four years.
Obama, Pelosi
The Biden campaign can’t have been surprised at the revelation in Politico, which said Obama’s co-conspirator, along with “Hollywood icon” Clooney, is none other Pelosi, she of the $24,000 refrigerator.
Obama and Clooney appeared at a fundraiser for Biden, which the actor discussed in his piece that encouraged Biden to quit.
“While Obama did not encourage or advise Clooney to say what he said, he also didn’t object to it, people familiar with their exchange said,” Politico reported:
The lack of pushback came despite the former president stepping out as one of the first big voices defending Biden following his abysmal debate performance last month — and as many of Obama’s former aides have emerged as some of the incumbent’s biggest critics.
Pelosi appeared on Morning Joe to say Biden must decide quickly, Politico noted.
Said Pelosi:
It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run we’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short. I want him to do whatever he decides to do and that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides we go with.
A source close to Pelosi said the remarks are a “subtle green light” to let terrified Democrats speak honestly about removing Biden, and “to warn Biden to reconsider staying in the race.”
But Pelosi, apparently, is among those who think Biden must step aside for the good of the party. She’s privately told colleagues that Biden will lose to Trump and must quit the race, the website reported:
In fact, she’s advised some Democrats in swing districts to do whatever they have to do to secure their own reelections — even if it means asking Biden to relinquish his place atop the ticket.
Pelosi has advised those members, however, to wait until this week’s NATO Summit is finished out of respect for Biden and national security writ large. Some members, we’re told, have already started drafting statements of what they want to say, ready to drop once foreign leaders leave town.
For members who aren’t in swing districts, Pelosi has encouraged them to take their pleas for Biden to step aside directly to the White House or the campaign so as to minimize public fighting. We’re told that some have tried but have not been able to get through to the president.
Of course, Pelosi denies all of it and says “she fully supports whatever” decision Biden makes.
That can’t be true.
Scarborough, Clooney
Two days ago, Scarborough and cohost Mika Brzezinski received an on-air phone call from Biden. Biden told the pair he wouldn’t quit. Democrat primary voters had decided and that is that, he said.
Today, Scarborough laid out Obama’s sub rosa role in the effort to remove Biden.
“One thing we do have to underline here, just so viewers can follow, what’s going on behind the scenes, is the Biden campaign and many Democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this,” Scarborough said. “If Joe Biden believes that, that’s not going to get him out of the race any faster.”
Attacks from the likes of Democratic strategist David Axelrod will have the opposite intended effect and Biden will simply dig in his heels. And he won’t step aside because Obama or anyone else wants him to, Scarborough continued:
Joe Biden is deeply resentful of his treatment under, not only the Obama staff but also the way he was pushed aside for Hillary Clinton. He’s deeply resentful of those trying to shove him out of the way. He’s always felt like an outsider, always felt like people have looked down upon him. That’s why I said at the top of the show, and people who know him best say, the only people that can talk to him are Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kaufman, Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Ron Klain, of course Jim Clyburn, and members of the Biden family.
The latest on the burgeoning movement to remove Biden comes on the heels of Clooney’s brutal hit in The New York Times.
“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote, but “the one battle he cannot win is the first against time.”
“Party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw,” he wrote about the Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump on June 27:
We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, whom we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.
Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and Congress member and governor who I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.
At 6:30 p.m., Biden is scheduled to field questions from the news media in an unscripted presser. Ostensibly, he’s appearing to discuss the NATO summit now ongoing in Washington, D.C.
But that topic will likely take a back seat to the questions the media will most certainly ask.
