WFCN —
An idea has been floating among two influential Democrats that President Biden should step down from the 2024 race and instead initiate a “blitz primary.”
Rosa Brooks and Ted Dintersmith, who collaborated on the proposal, distributed it to a large number of wealthy Democratic contributors, as well as officials in Biden’s administration and campaign workers.
To swiftly engage voters, the projected fast primary will center on creating viral content such as candidate forums moderated by Oprah or Taylor Swift.
To select a new contender before the August convention, two Democrats with influential friends are proposing that President Joe Biden step out from the 2024 race and initiate an accelerated Democratic primary.
The plan, which CNBC was able to receive, was co-authored by Ted Dintersmith, a wealthy Democrat, and Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University who had stints in the Obama and Clinton administrations. Someone reported the memo to Semafor first.
As calls for Biden to step down from the race intensify in the wake of his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump, the former president is facing mounting pressure to do so. Many Democrats were alarmed by the president’s performance in the debate, which added fuel to the fire of long-standing worries about Joe Biden’s youth and ability to defeat Donald Trump.
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The document was first emailed to dozens of influential Democrats, including major contributors, Biden appointees, and campaign staffers, according to Brooks and Dintersmith’s account of Tuesday’s events.
In a conversation with CNBC, Brooks stated that they forwarded the plan to “Everybody who we thought might have the ear of anybody who has any influence over the president’s decision-making.”
An important first step is outlined in the proposal, which calls for Biden to make an announcement about his withdrawal from the race in mid-July, a “speech for the ages,” according to the authors of the letter.
“Overnight, Biden is hailed as a modern-day George Washington, not an octogenarian clinging to power with a 37% approval rating,” the idea points out. “From goat to hero.”
In the following “blitz primary,” potential Democratic candidates present their platforms and the Democratic National Convention delegates choose the top six.
Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, or Stephen Colbert would conduct candidate forums in the hypothetical accelerated primary, which would be part of a huge social media content effort to engage voters, as stated in the document.
Assuming the previous blitz primary’s viral excitement had any effect, delegates voting at the DNC to choose the ultimate nominee would, according to Brooks and Dintersmith’s plan, reap the benefits of increased viewing and contributions.
Noting that she is not a political strategist, Brooks argued that the proposal is more of a living document and that many elements have altered as the Democrats who saw the letter hypothetically played with its ideas.
“The consistent reaction: ‘Wow!’ has been incredibly encouraging, even if we recognize that we cannot control what occurs. “If something like this were to occur, the United States would be lifted out of its present funk,” Dintersmith warned CNBC in an email.
Despite the low likelihood of its actual implementation, Brooks reported receiving dozens of comments after Tuesday’s initial proposal sending, the vast majority of which were positive.
“The tone has very much been, ‘Oh my God, this is probably impossible, but what a great idea,'” Brooks pointed out.
According to her, people are starting to perceive the proposal as a possibility as time goes on: “It’s gone, in a few days from, ‘Oh, this would be so great if only it could happen, but it probably can’t,’ to ‘Why can’t it?'” in other words.
In light of the proposal’s request for comment, the Biden campaign announced that fundraising for July had been its “strongest grassroots start to a month ever.”
The campaign further referenced Biden’s statements made in Wisconsin on Friday: “I refuse to allow a single 90-minute debate to discredit the three and a half years of preparation.” That’s right; I intend to defeat Donald Trump and remain in the race.