‘Force him’: Reason Biden’s inner circle planned debate so early
Joe Biden’s inner circle reportedly realised the president “wasn’t up” for the task of re-election months ago and took steps to show him why “he can’t do this anymore”, a White House correspondent has claimed.
Speaking to 2GB, former TIME Magazine White House correspondent Jay Newton-Small claimed there was a particular reason Mr Biden’s staff planned for him to speak at the first presidential debate so early ahead of the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention.
“The core inside team of Biden staffers realised 10 to 12, even 15 months ago, if not more, that Biden really wasn’t up for this,” she told the radio station.
“I’m told … those staffers wanted to sort of force Biden into a situation where he would have to either show the world that he was up for it, or would prove to the world that he wasn’t up for it. And obviously, the latter happened in this case”
Ms Newton-Small said the timing means Democrats may be looking at an open convention – which occurs when there is no named nominee.
“That’s why we’ve been hearing rumours for almost a year now for 10 months about an open convention. And that’s why they planned that debate so early,” she said.
