"I Know Who The DNC Is Priming To Replace Biden"
Anon source claims a tipsy official spilled about Biden's potential replacement planned for the DNC convention
Is political gossip better than Hollywood gossip?
These days, absolutely.
A few weeks ago, I received perhaps my favorite type of correspondence – an anonymous email requesting a call. The lure was good gossip related to "one of the stories I was working on." This source suggested they uncovered the planned strategy to replace Biden at the DNC with someone whose name sounded, at best, vaguely familiar. Color me intrigued.
Below is a summary of our conversation, perhaps the first installment in an unfolding series surrounding whether or not Biden will, in fact, be on the ballot this fall…
"We both wanna make politics interesting and fun, and this information falls right into that…"
So began my conversation with who we'll call Ashley. She continued:
"I wanna preface this by saying that what I have to say is hearsay…it could be something or it could be nothing. But either way I do think it's information that's important for people to know."
Ashley described herself as neither a Republican nor a Democrat; she's voted for both and doesn't have an agenda. (She did admit to being an RFK Jr. fan and a Scorpio to boot, so I, of course, immediately took to her.) With a background in law, she takes a critical eye when it comes to consuming and examining information. She's not a conspiracy theorist but loves a good conversational debate.
Which is how she came by the scoop she wanted to discuss with me: She was out with a group of friends ("intellectual," some of whom work in "high up circles"), discussing the various theories surrounding whether or not Biden is going to make it all the way to the election. One theory in particular caught Ashley's attention: Democrats would replace Biden with a different candidate at the DNC. It struck her because it sounded "sneaky" and because she had never heard of it as a legitimate political maneuver. It was an intellectually stimulating conversation, but she didn't think much of it after the group parted for the evening.
A few weeks later, someone she "trusts with her life" (who rubs elbows with liberal higher-ups) followed up with her, asking to meet. Over drinks, she asked if Ashley remembered that theory someone had shared that Biden would be replaced at the DNC. It wasn't just a theory, she told Ashley; there is a plan to announce a replacement for Biden at the DNC. At a different event, a friend with connections to the DNC shared with her, "The candidate is going to be Gretchen Whitmer," followed by, "I probably shouldn't have said that."
Up until recently, Ashley admitted to me that she wouldn't have believed this kind of rumor (especially when the candidate being floated was Gavin Newsom just a few months ago). It sounded like the type of thing people pose online that doesn't actually hold up in the political arena. The whole idea struck her as crooked – switching the sitting president out so close to the finish line, especially with someone whose name she couldn't place. What's more, it sounded like the guy sharing this information was potentially spilling these details after too many drinks – a classic name-dropper trying to sound important by sharing allegedly classified intel.
Despite her reservations, Ashley couldn't shake the idea; it struck her as eerily odd that she and her friends had been discussing that exact thing so recently – especially since it's something that hasn't actually happened before.
The conversation left her with two questions: 1) Is this even possible? and 2) Who the heck is Gretchen Whitmer?
We'll get into that second question in a later post, but to give you a bit of context for now: Gretchen Whitmer is the sitting governor of Michigan, a title she's held since 2018. She's an extremely viable candidate: She's successful, attractive, charismatic on camera, and has a history of bipartisan appeal. She's a career-long Michigan politician, and won back counties during her campaign that had previously voted for Trump. She's considerably younger than the competition, and she has a strong record of upholding reproductive healthcare rights, of particular note as abortion access continues to be one of the biggest issues on the ballot for 2024.
As for the first question: Could this actually happen? Answer: Yes. This exact maneuver was actually a consideration in 2016 during Hillary Clinton's campaign. In Donna Brazile's (aka, former chair of the DNC) memoir, she reveals that the DNC thought about announcing a new candidate at the convention after Hillary won the nomination due to health issues she was experiencing on the campaign trail. (Did anyone else forget all the fainting that happened during her campaign? Just me?) So, there's precedent for thought about it – i.e., late-stage replacing a nominated candidate in the event of an emergency.
Brazile's memoir further revealed that in order for this type of late replacement to happen, the nominated candidate either has to be incapacitated, resign, or there has to be some sign of a health emergency – something that would feasibly remove them from consideration. And if any of those scenarios were to happen, the DNC would create a committee to decide on a replacement. It's possible and "pretty easy," all things considered.
So, this isn't some "secret" approach. There's already a protocol for how this would work.
Which begs two more questions: 1) When is the DNC? (A: Beginning of August, in Chicago), and 2) Will Democrats just let Biden keep behaving as though he's the presumptive nominee, whether or not they have a plan to replace him at the ready?
It would be a pretty strategic move for several reasons. Michigan is very problematic for the current campaign, particularly in Dearborn, due to heavy Arab populations.
In Dearborn, there was recently a grassroots campaign to vote "uncommitted" in the primary to send a message to Biden to take a stronger stance against Israel – i.e., unless you take a different position, we aren't going to support you in this election. What's more, Michigan is a swing state and has a high number of electoral votes. So, it would be quite smart on the DNC's part to pick that state's governor as a last-minute replacement. Whitmer has a massive winning streak under her belt for all the endeavors she's pursued in her state.
So, it's possible, there's precedent – and the only time this type of candidate swapping can happen is at the convention.
It can't happen before the convention because if Biden were to withdraw, it would create total chaos during the primary. Every ego-driven Democrat would throw their hat in the ring to play ball, and the chances of a united front would be minimal at best.
It can't happen after the convention because now there's a candidate on the ballot. The documentation is in place; if you change the candidate after the convention, constitutional issues come into play.
But during the convention, the DNC (or RNC!) is allowed to swap someone in and/or reject the nominee (most typically decided upon by who wins the primary). Technically, this is the place where the collective can change their mind about an individual nominee, for whatever reason: There could be a coup, someone could resign – anything!
And here's the clincher: Were Biden to decide to step down at the DNC, for whatever reason (likely some admission about his obviously declining health; bear in mind, it would have to be convincing – think of it as political theater, dahling), he would by that point have all the delegates. So, it would ultimately be his decision on what to do with them. It's the smoothest possible transition to throw all the support behind a different nominee, even with the Election Day countdown looming in the double digits. What's more, Democrats are historically much better than Republicans at toeing their party's line and maintaining a united front, whoever their candidate might be. It's a huge play to the DNC's strengths.
So, after completely blowing my mind by unpacking all this, I asked Ashley – do you actually think this is going to happen?
“Do I believe it could happen? I don’t know. But it’s plausible.”
She reiterated her reasons for reaching out in the first place: She had a reaction to it, plain and simple. It struck her as poor form to pull something like this: a deeply thought out political strategy dressed as a last-minute, health-induced switcheroo. Despite being legal and allowed (and, again, pretty savvy), it’s dirty politics if the DNC privately knows they are going to do this but still plan on publicly touting Biden right up to the convention. “I of course understand why, but it’s still shady.”
Stay tuned…
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Here in Michigan, we will always fight like hell for your basic rights and freedoms.”
WHO IS GRETCHEN WITMER?
Back in 2023, Gretchen Whitmer went on CNN and said, "I am not running for president in 2024. Period." You can read the whole transcript here. She has a sour reputation with Republicans due to her extreme COVID lockdown measures and regularly drew the ire of Trump on Twitter for her various safety protocols. That said, among her Democratic peers, she has an excellent reputation and is even the co-chair of Biden's reelection committee. So why do we have a sneaking suspicion she just might be taking his place on the ballot?
Bio // Background
Whitmer is a born and bred Michigander, having received all of her education from elementary through law school in the state. A career politician, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 (for which she was voted Most Effective Democrat of the Michigan House in 2005) and the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015 (during which she became the first woman to lead a party caucus in the Senate in 2011). From the looks of it, she only stopped being a Senator due to term limits, which culminated in her becoming Governor of Michigan in 2019 (for which she won all 83 counties in Michigan in the Democratic primary), which she has remained since then. She worked with a Republican-controlled legislature for the first half of her time as Governor and regularly touts her ability to get work done across the aisle politically.
In the break between being a Senator and a Governor, she was the unanimous pick to complete Stuart Dunning III's term in 2016 as Ingham County Prosecutor after he was caught with a prostitute. Since 2021, she's served as one of the vice chairs for the DNC.
TLDR: She's been around for a minute, has a reputation for getting shit done, and was the muse for a rap song that highlights her voting base's affection for "Big Gretch."
Her tenure in office is also noteworthy because Michigan is a swing state.
Something About Her Midwestern Appeal
She has never left Michigan, and her policies are incredibly down to earth: improving road infrastructure, keeping citizens money in their pockets, and maintaining educational excellence. One of her campaign slogans is literally to "fix the damn roads." Doesn't get more Midwestern than that. (However, it's worth noting that one of her big pushes that would fund road infrastructure called for an insanely high gas tax, which was wildly unpopular with voters and was canned by the legislature.)
And if that's not enough, there's always her quintessential Michigan accent.
Details About Her As a Woman's Advocate (Pro-Life)
She famously spoke during a floor speech debate about her personal experience with sexual assault, which is why she advocates for abortion, arguing specifically for women who are victims of assault to have abortion as an option (though she also supports late-term abortion, which is controversial even among liberals).
A huge part of her platform has been healthcare, and her focus has largely been on women's healthcare and Medicaid.
Her second gubernatorial campaign featured many ads slamming Tudor Dixon (her opponent – a former horror film actress endorsed by Trump) for only being in favor of abortion when the mother's life is in peril.
She says that the reason Michigan has gone full Democrat (aka, the party now controls all levels of state government as of November 2022) is because of their united front on protecting abortion rights in the fallout of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She references many women telling her that they'd never voted Democrat in their life, but they voted for her because they knew she would protect abortion access.
I did not find anything about her being Pro-Life at any time. If anything, she's been incredibly effective for the pro-choice platform, blocking ancient abortion bans in her state and being a pillar in the pro-choice movement following her famous 2013 speech. In fact, during that speech she accused a pro-life group of "vicious lies" in order to even get people to sign their petition.
Covid Responses (She Was Criticized For Being Extremely Strict)
Whitmer invoked emergency powers in order to issue and extend stay-at-home orders beginning in early March 2020 when Covid was first detected in Michigan that banned "in person work that is not necessary to sustain or protect life," which turned into the longest and strictest lockdown in the Midwest. Aside from her 2013 speech, this is arguably the time she became nationally recognized; Michigan had some of the highest COVID rates despite her extreme shutdown regulations. She issued 200 emergency orders in less than a year, most of which had to do with Covid protocols, before the Michigan Supreme Court took away her privileges for overuse. She continued extending stay-at-home orders, despite protests and public pushback from both conservatives and liberals (including an attempted kidnapping plot, but we'll get to that later).
Some of her more extreme measures included prohibiting public gathering outside of private households (and Michigan was one of the last states to lift caps on public gatherings, all the way into May 2021). She also imposed restrictions on goods that could be purchased based on whether they were deemed "essential" or not. The severity of her measures were criticized by Trump multiple times (and it's interesting to note she implied that the severity of her restrictions were at least partially in response to a lack of federal government assistance). She has since gone on record as saying her protocols were too severe in retrospect, even going so far as to say in retrospect they "don't make a lot of sense."
Her Husband Wanted His Boat In The Water Despite Restrictions She Put In Place
In the days leading up to Memorial Day Weekend of 2020 (in the thick of the Michigan lockdown), Whitmer's husband, Marc Mallory, placed a call to the company that docks their boat in Traverse City, asking that it be made ready for the holiday weekend. The owner of the company said that was impossible since it was the holiday weekend and they were running several weeks behind because of the lockdown, to which he replied, "I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?"
Whitmer didn't exactly lift restrictions before the big clambake; she cautioned citizens, "If you don't live in these regions...think long and hard before you take a trip into them." To be clear, the boat in question was to be docked at her family's vacation home—aka, they would be traveling from their main residence to visit for Memorial Day.
The owner of the docking company posted about it on Facebook, though it was quickly taken down because he said his company was receiving too many media requests and it wasn't worth the hassle. Whitmer's rep said she couldn't respond to each and every bit of online gossip about the Governor, and redirected people to the various safety threats she's experienced.
There was some kind of convoluted attempt at a walkback, in which this boat request was made to appear as a bad joke – aka, her husband wasn't seriously asking to get their boat in the water, he was just being funny, guys! – but in light of the fact that Whitmer also went to Florida the following year to visit her father in March of 2021 after warning Michiganders against out-of-state spring break travel (in addition to several other out-of-state excursions), it's not a good look (though she did say she was sorry!).
The Kidnapping Story
In October of 2020, the FBI thwarted a militia group's attempt to kidnap Whitmer. This group, known as the Wolverine Watchmen, was allegedly intercepted by an undercover FBI informant with a rap sheet longer than the PCH. Their plan was to kidnap Whitmer and then overthrow the Michigan government (in response to the extreme Covid protocols imposed by Whitmer). Said informant, Stephen Robeson, was a double agent, which is where it gets really complicated, particularly where it concerns the efficacy of the FBI (fabulously parsed out in this Intercept article). Some people think this was a dress rehearsal for January 6; others (aka, Tucker Carlson) think this was a plot not uncovered by the FBI, but designed by them. Either way, it begs the question: WTF?
Kidnapping Crew
An Established Feud W Trump
As we've already established, Whitmer at least partially blamed the severity of her Covid restrictions on a lack of assistance and guidance from the federal government (aka, the Trump administration). She also attributed the kidnapping attempt to Trump throwing "a lot of gas on the fire" and not condemning far-right groups. Her opponent in her second gubernatorial race was Tudor Dixon, endorsed by Trump, whom she soundly defeated.
It would certainly be an interesting strategy move if she were the candidate because there is already an established conflict between her and Trump; they are already poised against one another. A more behind-the-scenes conflict exists in her championing of abortion rights, where Trump is largely blamed for the overturning of Roe v. Wade because he appointed three conservative judges during his time in office.
Trump’s introduction to Gretchen
Jessie’s Conclusion: It's somewhat difficult to find unflattering coverage of her online; most of the stuff I read led with the fact that she's been in office for so long and that she's done a lot of good during her tenure (specifically for women's rights, infrastructure, and the fight to end gun violence). However, when you read between the lines a bit, you can see that she has definitely done really unpopular things as Governor as well, particularly the Covid snafu and her circumventing of her own guidelines. Her social media presence is significantly better/more popular than other Midwestern governors – for instance, Governor Holcomb of Indiana ® has 17K followers; Mike DeWine of Ohio (R) has 64K; JB Pritzker (D) of Illinois has 72K; Gretchen Whitmer has 253K. By and large, she seems pretty beloved and is not at all painted as controversial; you have to hunt to find the unflattering coverage (which is largely from Tucker Carlson, lol).
Rebuttal From Another DNC Source
CONSIDER:
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I live in Michigan. I despise Whitmer. Many of us do. There was problems with the elections there also.
Michigander here. Big Gretch's handling of the pandemic is what red-pilled me. People here in the upper peninsula DESPISE her. I remember her going on a vacation with her family on a private jet while the rest of us were locked down.
She's got a great wardrobe of blazers, but that's about all she has to offer. Her and Newsome would be my hunger games nightmare.