The Biden campaign is quietly experimenting with the possibility of a Kamala Harris presidential campaign after President Joe Biden’s disastrous June debate shook the confidence of even his closest allies.
The internal survey conducted by the Biden campaign examined a hypothetical head-to-head matchup of Vice President Harris and former president Donald Trump, the New York Times reported. While sources did not disclose the reason for the survey or the results found, it is clear that Biden’s aides and allies are seriously contemplating his potential ouster from the Democratic ticket.
A recent CNN/SSRS poll shows that while Harris slightly outperforms Biden, she is still behind Trump in a head-to-head matchup.
While Biden participates in events marking the anniversary of the NATO alliance, Harris is on the campaign trail in North Carolina this week. During a campaign rally at James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro this afternoon, Harris reaffirmed her support of President Biden while focusing on issues of health care and national security. Harris did not mention inflation or the border crisis.
This week, more Biden surrogates have cast doubt on his electability while intensifying calls for his departure.
"Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House," Sen. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday. "So for me, this isn’t a question about polling. It’s not a question about politics. It’s a moral question about the future of our country."
"It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big f—king deal’ Biden of 2010," Hollywood director and liberal donor George Clooney wrote. "He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."
This evening, President Biden will conduct his first press conference since the debate, attempting to ease the worries of his allies and prove to voters that his debate performance was merely a "bad night."