Dems planned for Biden to withdraw from presidential race, ‘die in office’ — as far back as 2023, scathing new book claims

Democrats quietly hatched contingency plans to prepare for former President Joe Biden dying in office or removing himself from consideration to be the party’s 2024 nominee more than a year before Election Day, a new book claims.

While the White House, party officials and media members like MSNBC host Joe Scarborough publicly testified to Biden’s fitness for office, aides to Vice President Kamala Harris privately “strategized around the possibility that Biden might die in office,” according to Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ upcoming book, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” which was previewed by the Guardian.

Officials at the Democratic National Committee engaged in similar prep work as well, according to Allen and Parnes.

The new book details Democrats’ thinking about Biden’s ability to hold high office.William Morrow
“In hush-hush talks starting in 2023, [DNC] officials gamed out Biden-withdrawal scenarios, according to two people familiar with them,” the authors wrote.

“They wanted to make sure the party was ready for every possible circumstance: If Biden launched his campaign and then stepped aside before the primaries; if he won a bunch of primaries and then could not continue. If he secured enough delegates for winning the nomination but dropped out before winning a floor vote at the convention, and if he left a vacancy at the top of the ticket after taking the nomination.”

Biden, 82, ultimately withdrew from the 2024 presidential race on July 21 amid a revolt from the party following his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Donald Trump — during which he struggled to complete full thoughts and answer questions posed by the CNN moderators.

According to Allen and Parnes, top Dems had fretted for months that he wouldn’t make it all the way through a grueling campaign.

“One official involved in secret talks put a fine point on the fear that Biden would not make it to election day as the party’s nominee: ‘It shows what we had to do to prepare with the unique circumstances we had, which was an 80-plus-year-old president who was running,” the book claims.

Inside the White House, one of the key figures involved with contingency planning was Harris’ then-communications director Jamal Simmons — who  even prepared a “death-pool roster” of judges who could quickly be called to swear Harris into office, if necessary

Democrats quietly hatched plans for former President Joe Biden to pull out, the book claims.AP

Simmons departed his role with Harris at the beginning of January 2023.

While he “never told the vice president about the death-pool roster before leaving her camp,” he demanded to be “notified immediately if something happened to Biden, because he had worked out an entire communications strategy,” Allen and Parnes claim.

Simmons later drew national attention after Trump’s election victory for publicly suggesting Biden step down from office before the inauguration so that his old boss could make history as the first female commander in chief.

Top level Democrats were concerned about Biden not making it through the 2024 campaign, according to the book.Getty Images

“Joe Biden’s been a phenomenal president, he’s lived up to so many of the promises he’s made. There’s one promise left that he could fulfill: Being a transitional figure,” Simmons told CNN at the time. “He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris president of the United States.”

Biden did not do that.

The 46th president had intended to stay in the race even after the debate debacle, but his performance in front of a global audience of millions forced a reckoning.

Harris’ former communications director Jamal Simmons reportedly created an emergency “death-pool roster” of judges that could be called to quickly swear Harris into office if necessary.Instagram / @realjamalsimmons
“One veteran operative summed up the sentiments of Democrats who worried they would get stuck with Harris but still wanted Biden out: ‘Well, at least she has a pulse,’” Allen and Parnes wrote.

Two days after the debate, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy hosted a donor reception that Biden attended. The president required fluorescent tape on the floor to function as “colorful bread crumbs [that] showed the leader of the free world where to walk,” the book said.

During that event, Biden “didn’t look well” and “didn’t sound vital,” according to the authors.

Democratic luminaries privately urged Biden to consider throwing in the towel, with his former boss Barack Obama asking point-blank: “What is your path?”

“What’s my path?” Biden thought, according to the tome. “What’s your f—ing plan?”

Allen and Parnes have both previously written books on Trump’s 2016 election victory and 2020 defeat. Their book is slated for publication April 1.