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New reports emerging from the presidential campaign of incumbent Democrat Joe Biden have indicated that while publicly not a potential replacement for the 80-year-old Delaware politician, California’s relatively spry Governor Gavin Newsom, 55 has gained some acceptance as a campaign surrogate, if not a replacement for Joe.
According to Fox News, though the purported ‘off-ramps’ for Biden are becoming more limited, as long as a potential alternate candidate officially files by October 15th, the first deadline for the Democrat primary, then any of the possible successors waiting in the wings could step in within reason. So as Rémy Numa puts it, “is it too late for them to find a viable replacement? The short answer is no, but time is running out.
As previously reported by Explain America, Newsom addressed the question of his potential candidacy in an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet The Press on Sunday morning. As NBC noted: in a recent CNN poll two-thirds of Democrats questioned preferred that an alternate Democrat candidate to incumbent President Joe Biden, run for the White House. Newsom is held up alongside Vice President Kamala Harris as the two most likely undeclared candidates next to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Marianne Williamson who are both running in earnest.
In an important distinction: addressed with the question by Todd “Filing deadlines haven’t passed. President Biden doesn’t run. Why shouldn’t we consider you a likely candidate?” Newsom deflected by didn’t deny a potential run.
He told the host,
“Well, I think the vice president is naturally the one lined up, and the filing deadlines are quickly coming to pass, and I think we need to move past this notion that he’s not going to run. President Biden is going to run, and looking forward to getting him reelected. I think there’s been so much wallowing in the last few months and handwringing in this respect. But we’re gearing up for the campaign. We’re looking forward to it.”
EXCLUSIVE: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) says Democrats “need to move past” their worries about whether President Biden is really running for re-election.@chucktodd: What do you tell donors who are handwringing over this?@GavinNewsom: “Time to move on. Let’s go.” pic.twitter.com/o9STuXGug2
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 8, 2023
When Todd asked “What do you tell donors who are handwringing over this?” Newsom answered, “Time to move on. Let’s go.” Newsom reportedly shared his donor list with the Biden campaign as well.
According to NBC though not all is well. Allies of Vice President Kamala Harris have taken exception to the upcoming and widely anticipated debate between Newsom and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“It’s disrespectful,” an adviser to Harris told NBC. “Joe Biden is running with Kamala Harris. That’s the Democratic ticket.” However, some advisors to Biden see the benefit of the high profile Democrat defending the party’s talking points from an aggressive Republican contender.
“What he’s doing here is appropriate for a surrogate. It would not be appropriate for the president or the vice president,” a Biden adviser cited by NBC said. “We’re in close touch with him,” the adviser said. “This is the kind of thing we want surrogates to do.”
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s re-election team told the outlet by text message, “Governor Newsom is a strong partner and surrogate for the Biden-Harris campaign,” adding “We coordinate closely on campaigning, whether it’s fundraising or media. When he brought the debate idea to us, we endorsed it.”
Fox News’ Numa observed that a second potential route for Biden to step aside gracefully would be to anoint a successor directly in his speech to The Democratic National Convention when it meets in August as under party rules, ‘pledged delegates are not required to vote for the candidate they represent but are told to ‘reflect the sentiments of those who elected them,’ so an endorsement from Biden would be very influential.” If a majority of the delegates followed Biden’s endorsement that would seal up the nomination in a straightforward manner.
