Even Democrats Worry Kamala Harris Could Become President – President Joe Biden’s age and his questionable mental health have some Democrats openly worried they could suddenly awaken to find out that he passed away in the night.
“President Joe Biden needs a tuneup. He’s a stiff when speaking at the lectern. When not a stiff, the 80-year-old can be a dolt, saying, as he did this week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘losing the war in Iraq’ when he meant Ukraine, or blurting out a senseless, ‘God save the Queen, man,’ at a gun control rally last week,” Politico columnist Jack Shafer wrote. “If Biden can’t vanquish a worthy Democrat in primary season, he has no business entering the general.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the last president to die in office of natural causes. His vice president, Harry S. Truman, went on to lead the nation into the end of the Second World War and into the Korean War five years later.
Kamala Harris Looms Large in the Background
Kamala Harris is clearly not in the same category as Truman or Lyndon Baines Johnson, the last man to succeed to the presidency in the wake of the sitting president dying in office.
Nor is she in the same category as Calvin Coolidge who became president following the death of Warren Harding in 1923.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has turned Harris’s name into the butt of a joke claiming that a vote for Biden is a vote for her as president.
“If Kamala Harris had convinced the country that she could step into Biden’s shoes should he suddenly step out of them, the argument for a primary challenge wouldn’t be so urgent. But when was the last time somebody you trust told you Harris could easily fill those shoes, let alone sprint to the nomination if the hereafter called Biden home before November 2024?” Shafer wrote.
Biden Likely to Survive a Second Term
The odds are better than 50-50 that Biden would survive to complete a second term.
“But is Biden really likely to die before age 86, which is what he would be at the end of his second term? The Actuarial Life Table published by the Social Security Administration gives the average male at age 82 a 67% chance of living to 86 — for Biden that gives him a full second term in office. Using the same data set, Trump, who will be 77 next month, has a 73% chance of staying alive to the end of his second presidential term,” William A. Galston and Elaine Kamarck wrote in a blog for the Brookings Institution in May.
Shafer similarly noted that Trump seems to be the same person he was in 2016 despite adding six years to his age. And unlike Biden, Trump remains alert and as feisty as ever.
He notes that Biden struggles to get ahead of the former president in the polls despite Trump’s legal woes.
“With a tepid approval rating that puts him near to Donald Trump at his worst, Biden needs a primary opponent who can prepare him for the 2024 general election, somebody who can make him prove that he can still run the traps and beat whichever Republican he faces,” Shafer wrote.
Gavin Newsom Suggested as a Replacement
Some have suggested that Biden and Harris should step aside to let fresher faces prevail. Suggested replacements have included California Gov. Gavin Newsom whose youthful looks and articulate speaking style would easily make him more competitive than Biden.
Newsom has made overtures toward Republican voters by appearing on Fox News and campaigning in Republican states that are usually overlooked by Democrats.
The fact Trump remains competitive with Biden despite his legal troubles is a sign that the oldest president in U.S. history is in trouble heading into 2024.
John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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