Democrats are questioning if President Biden should drop out of the presidential race

On Sunday and Monday, President Joseph R. Biden (D) met at Camp David with First Lady Jill Biden and members of the Biden family on the issue of whether or not to remain in the presidential race. Multiple media outlets are reporting that the Biden family urged Biden to stay in the race. The President's son, Hunter Biden, is reportedly adamant that his father remain in the race and continues to stay the course.

While the President was meeting with his family other Democrats were reportedly laying the groundwork for Joe Biden to make a "dignified" exit from the presidential race.

Clinton era Democratic strategist James Carville told Axios that he does not believe that Biden will be on the ballot when voters go to the polls on election day.

Obama political strategist David Axelrod has said that the only person with the power to keep Biden off of the ballot is Joe Biden and that Democrats should have had these conversations about Biden's fitness to serve a year ago.

"The point is now he is the nominee of the Democratic Party," said Axelrod on CNN. "This isn't the 60s, okay. Voters choose the nominee. He is the nominee only he can decide whether he's going to continue, and as you point out, this is a guy with a lot of pride who believes in himself. The idea that he's going to say, "You know, I had a bad debate, I think I'm going to walk away from this." I find it hard to believe."

The Biden family are reportedly arguing that Biden is the Democrat who has the best chance to defeat Donald J Trump. They argue that if he withdraws from the race the race then there is little path for anyone other than Vice President Kamala Harris to win the nomination.

While Biden's personal popularity is dreadful, he has raised incredible amounts of money to this point and transferring those funds to anyone other than Harris would be difficult at best. For the Democrats to open up their convention to a possible nominee other than Biden or Harris would likely mean entering September with far less cash on hand than Trump.

They are reportedly making the case that it would be impossible for Democratic convention delegates to pass over the first Black vice president, the first woman vice president, and the first Asian American Vice President. They point to polls showing that Biden performs better in head-to-head contests against Trump than does Harris. Of course, those polls were all made before Biden's dreadful debate performance on Thursday night. A more recent poll released on Wednesday has Harris performing better than Biden and one betting house has improved the odds of Kamala being the next President to higher than Biden.

If Biden does withdraw from the race it would set up an open convention where the delegates who are sworn to Biden would be freed from their obligation to vote for him on the first ballot. They and the party boss "super delegates" would then select the Democratic nominee for President.

Former Biden Administration spokeswoman Jen Psaki warned that there would be concerns with an open convention.

"The delegates are not the public at large," said Psaki. "We don't know what the polls are going to say in a week."

Psaki warned that an open convention would pit Harris versus 2028 Democratic presidential contenders. Everyone would get mad and then spit out a nominee that the public has not vetted.

"I think it is important to know what the alternative looks like and what the potential consequences are of that too."

The cabinet could take this decision out of Biden's hands by declaring him as unfit for office, invoking the 25th Amendment, and replacing Joe Biden as President. That scenario would elevate Harris to president for the remainder of Biden's term.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has suggested that is an option that should be considered.

"There's a lot of people asking about the 25th Amendment, invoking the 25th Amendment right now because this is an alarming situation," Johnson said. "Our adversaries see the weakness in this White House as we all do. I take no pleasure in saying that. I think this is a very dangerous situation."

"I would ask the Cabinet members to search their hearts," Johnson continued, "We have a serious problem here, because we have a president who, by all appearances, is not up to the task and these are very dangerous times. This is a very serious moment in American history. And it needs to be regarded and handled as such. And we hope that they will do their duty, as we all seek to do our duty to do best for the American people."

Removing Biden and installing Harris as President before the convention would effectively lock Democrats into Harris being the nominee. If passing over the first Black, first woman, first Asian Vice President would be difficult for Democratic delegates, passing her over when she is the first Black, first woman, first Asian President of the United States would be xt to impossible.

If the Bidens make the decision that he stays in the race because he is more electable than Harris, the conundrum for the American people here is that at this point it appears highly unlikely that an 81 year old Biden is capable of finishing his second term. A vote for Biden in November is effectively a vote for Kamala Harris, when Biden's failing cognitive abilities (which remain unexplained to the public) inevitably lead to him either stepping down or being removed by the cabinet.

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