Democrats explore possibility of Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden

The Democratic Party has launched contingency plans for Kamala Harris to replace Joe Biden if he decides to step down from the presidential race, amid growing concerns about his age and health.

Party officials and advisers are working on a plan for Mr Biden to stand down, throwing his support behind his vice president as a replacement nominee, sources told CNN.

On Wednesday night, Mr Biden told Democratic governors he is planning to curb his work schedule after 8pm each day in a bid to avoid another incident like his disastrous performance at the presidential debate against Donald Trump last week.

The admission suggests the ageing president is also concerned about his health and believes it could scupper his election chances if voters do not believe he is up to the job when they go to the polls in November.

The White House yesterday admitted Mr Biden was seen by a medical professional after the debate, but said it was not a full physical examination and was related to a cold he had contracted in the days before the event. Previously, a spokesman said he had received no medical attention.

Mr Biden also reportedly told governors in Wednesday’s meeting that his slip-ups were “just my brain”, in what was interpreted by some as a joke.

Although the president insists he will continue as the party’s nominee, a plan to replace him with Ms Harris if he does step down has already been discussed.

It has been suggested that Mr Biden would urge delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August to switch their support from his ticket to hers, avoiding a lengthy and divisive leadership contest less than three months before November’s election.

Despite her support for Mr Biden as the party’s nominee, Ms Harris has emerged as an early favourite to replace him if he bows to pressure from some Democrats and stands back to make way for a younger candidate.

Two sitting Democrats and dozens of party officials have called for Mr Biden to go, following a disastrous debate performance against Trump last Thursday. They claim he is too old to serve a second term and that he no longer has any chance of beating Trump.

“Who would stand up against our historic vice president to be our nominee for president?”, a Democratic official told CNN, pointing to growing momentum for Ms Harris if Mr Biden agrees to go.

Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s leader in the House of Representatives, is said to have expressed support for a potential Harris ticket in private conversations with Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Jim Clyburn, a longtime ally of Mr Biden, has said publicly that his party “should do everything to bolster her, whether she’s in second place or at the top of the ticket”.

Both Ms Harris and Mr Biden, who had lunch together on Thursday and attended two all-staff calls, have said he will remain as the party’s nominee.

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can – and as simply and straightforward as I can,” Biden told the staff.

“I am running. I’m the nominee of the Democratic party. No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving.”

Alternative scenarios

Ms Harris said in a later interview with CBS News that she was “proud to be Joe Biden’s running mate”. Her spokesman said Mr Biden “is and will remain our party’s nominee”, adding: “Reports suggesting they or the campaign are considering alternative scenarios are patently false.”

A CNN poll published on Tuesday showed Ms Harris would not beat Trump in a head-to-head match-up, but that she performs better than Mr Biden by two points.

The poll showed Ms Harris would lose with 45 per cent of the popular vote, to Trump’s 47 per cent, while Mr Biden would lose with 43 per cent to Trump’s 49 per cent.

In a leaked video on Wednesday, shot at a golf course, Trump described Ms Harris as “pathetic” and suggested he would be more likely to win against her. He also falsely claimed Mr Biden had already announced he would be leaving the race.

“People want the president to be successful, but it’s unclear where we’re headed,” said Jamal Simmons, Ms Harris’s former communications director, told the Washington Post.

“And so as people begin to ponder if we had to do something else, what that something else would look like, who that someone else would be, the math leads you to Kamala Harris.”

Her supporters argue that, as the first Asian and African-American woman to serve as vice president, she would be well placed to shore up the vote of ethnic minority Americans that the Biden campaign has been losing in recent months.

Ms Harris has spent much of the last year campaigning on wedge issues in the swing states, including abortion rights, which the Biden campaign considers to be one of the best ways to attract moderate support.

Harris backers also say that she would more easily be able to access more than a quarter of a million dollars in campaign funds that have been raised jointly in her name. Another challenger, such as the Democratic governors Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer, would have to start fundraising from scratch.

However, there is also concern that Ms Harris is relatively untested compared with Mr Biden, and that there are only four months for voters to hear her pitch before polling day.

Publicly, the White House and Biden campaign insist that he will remain as the nominee. The team is focussed on the US president performing well in an interview with ABC News to air on Friday, and two campaign events in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this weekend.