Here's How Long the Trump Camp Was Preparing for Biden's Exit

Matt Vespa reporting for Townhall 

The June 27 debate blew the lid off the cover-up operation aimed at keeping Joe Biden’s mental health decline under the radar. The Democrat-media complex took a gamble, and it blew up in their face. Joe Biden got torched by Donald Trump, sparking an internal panic within the Democratic Party and a media backlash for covering up the president’s apparent mental slippage. We’ve noticed Joe’s decline for years and were mocked and written off as conspiracy theorists by the legacy media. Now, they got whipped rightly for not being able to penetrate the White House guardrails when they easily could, out of fear of losing access to the president or, worse, helping Trump in his bid to win his job back. It was an inexcusable oversight, leading to a flurry of stories about how everyone and their mother at home and aboard knew Biden had run out of gas. 

The Wall Street Journal, who, to their credit, did a lengthy piece about Joe’s mental decline, got roasted but weathered the liberal media hysterics and came away totally vindicated. The Trump campaign also was prepared for every eventuality in this race, including Joe quitting. Even before his election-killing performance in June, the Trump team has been preparing for Biden to bolt since May (via Politico) [emphasis mine]: 

The subject line: “Nominating An Alternative Democratic Presidential Candidate.” 

The 11-page memo, labeled “CONFIDENTIAL DRAFT” outlined the ways in which another candidate besides Biden could become the nominee. The scenarios included: “Biden step[ping] aside,” an “insider rebellion,” and an “act of God.” 

“Something happens and Joe Biden and the [Democratic National Committee] have no choice but to nominate a replacement at the convention or special meeting of the DNC,” the memo says. The memo was first reported by Axios.  

The existence of the memo underscores how the Trump campaign has for months been eyeing the prospect of facing a non-Biden opponent. Those preparations accelerated after the June 27 debate, when Democrats mounted a pressure campaign to get Biden to remove himself from the ticket. 

The document delved deeply into Democratic Party rules — describing, for instance, how delegates could launch an uprising at the convention and deprive Biden of the nomination. It forecasted a scenario in which delegates who were critical of the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict could “vote against [Biden] based on conscience.” 

At the same time, Republicans were closely tracking news coverage. A separate document, which was distributed May 27 and titled "Press Stories Re: Biden Stepping Aside, Convention 'Escape Hatch,'" compiled stories that raised the prospect of an alternative candidate to Biden becoming the nominee. It also highlighted the names of other potential candidates who were mentioned, including Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The Trump campaign was also preparing an assault on non-Biden candidates. After the debate, it began preparing opposition on several potential Democratic rivals, and also began discussing who could be a possible vice presidential candidate. And it began crafting videos, which could later be used to target whoever Democrats picked. On Sunday, after Biden dropped out, Republicans released a commercial attacking Harris on immigration — an issue that Trump has made a centerpiece of his campaign. 

After the debate, Biden faced an unprecedented rebellion from congressional Democrats, donors, and even media members. Multiple publications called for him to step down following his abysmal debate performance. His media rehabilitation tour did little to sway his detractors, and it was an overall mess. ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, who interviewed the president following his debate disaster, came away thinking Biden couldn’t hack another four years. His NBC News sit-down was equally painful, and the president’s BET interview, where he forgot Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name, calling him “the black man,” only reinforced the ‘dump Biden’ crowd that this wasn’t going to get better, and that’s. likely true. The president started to crumble in safe states like Virginia. The longer he remained in the race, the more radioactive he became to the party—a point rammed home by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Biden was looking at a Jimmy Carter-style loss to Trump. On July 21, the president finally admitted he didn’t have the stamina to do the job and quit.