First of all, the Zhou campaign is calling BS on the latest PR ploy to convince Zhou that his swap-out is inevitable so he may as well embrace it:
"Absolutely" In The Race: Biden Campaign Calls Malarkey On MSM Reports
On Thursday evening, the New York Times reported that 'people close to Biden' say the president has "begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win in November and may have to drop out of the race."
The Biden campaign swiftly answered - insisting that wasn't true, while longtime Biden ally Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) - whose daughter Biden sniffed - said that the president is still seeking 'input' from colleagues on what to do.
On Friday, Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon insisted on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' that the president is staying in the campaign against all odds.
"He’s our nominee and he’s going to be our president for a second term," she said, acknowledging that "this has been such a hard week," but that Biden will be "back on the trail next week" after allegedly contracting COVID.
"This is an organization built for the Biden-Harris ticket," she continued.
BREAKING - YOUR REACTION: Biden-Harris Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon (@jomalleydillon) says no alternative plan to replace Biden, says after knocking on 100,000 doors in battleground states, 76% of people said they stand with Joe Biden, others have questions being addressed.… pic.twitter.com/2pS9GCUZLL
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) July 19, 2024
New Biden campaign email just now: "Joe Biden has made it more than clear: He’s in this race and he’s in it to win it. Moreover, he’s the presumptive nominee — there is no plan for an alternative nominee. In a few short weeks, Joe Biden will be the official nominee."
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) July 19, 2024
The problem, of course, is that Zhou has all the delegates he needs. The Dems fixed the primaries for him. End of game. All they can do now is try to talk him out of running again. Well, not exactly. There appears to be some sort of ill defined party bylaw that would allow for Zhou’s forced removal from the ticket if he’s “incapacitated”. However, that raises all sorts of problems and doesn’t really solve any of them. Short of that, only the 25th could remove him. None of these moves would solve the question of donor money, of course. And then there’s also the problem that the Dems might not appear on the ballot in as many as four key states—that depends on state law and state courts, but in several cases (including Ohio, as FreedomFront23 pointed out) this eventuality looks probable to certain.
Which raises the question: Why are the Dem insiders doing this? I believe—as I’ve said before—that there is only one reason that can explain this, and dementia isn’t that reason, not per se. The reason has to be powerful enough that the Dems are willing to swallow a totally blown election, possibly a major landslide for Trump. The reason is the Dem freakout over losing a significant percentage of their base—especially Blacks. Probably not a majority, but the possibility that the Black vote for the Dems could be anything less than 85% would be disastrous for the Dems going forward. It could be the end of the party as it has been since LBJ. If even 20% of Blacks vote GOP and find out that that doesn’t bring about the end of the world, that could be it for the Dems. The same goes—to varying degrees—for Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Easterners. Also suburban women. The whole Coalition of the Fringes could effectively implode, in the sense that the Dems would be reduced to winning the votes of demographics that they previously took for granted. In my view only this consideration explains the apparent willingness of the Dems to embrace what looks like a disaster in the current election. It’s a desperate move. But these are desperate times for the Dems.
You make a very good point that shouldn't be understated. However, I do think the Dems in Congress are deathly afraid that Zhou will cost them their own seats and ultimately control of the House (there seems to be consensus now that the Senate is already lost to them). When they are coming out and presenting this as an argument to Zhou's face it does indicate a legitimate fear on their part. Politicians are above all else self-interested.
So the Party is desperately trying to save the Party, while the POTATUS desperately tries to stave off the historical humiliation of being overthrown by his own party.
If Congress ran up the 25th, would it be a good political play for R's to vote against it?