Ashley Allison is shown at SiriusXM DC Performance Space on October 19, 2017, in Washington, D.C. | Source: Larry French / Getty
Ever since Joe Biden debated Donald Trump last month, speculation has steadily built about the president’s future as a presidential candidate and has largely centered on bipartisan suspicions of mental decay and cognitive disrepair as a means to get him to drop out of the race.
But one overlooked aspect of the apparent process underway to replace him as the presumptive Democratic nominee is how doing so would effectively undermine the will of the Americans who not only voted for him in 2020 but also those who still want him to remain president and be reelected.
MORE: Things Black Voters Should Know Before The Republican National Convention
Those “Americans” particularly refer to Black voters, according to Ashley Allison, a former official in the 2020 Biden-Kamala Harris campaign.
Responding to the criticism following Biden’s press conference Thursday after the president met with world NATO leaders, Allison expounded on that topic during a panel discussion on CNN this week with some choice words in no uncertain terms.
“I’m a little annoyed and I’m furious because I talk to Black people who have saved this country over and over, who helped elect Joe Biden, who saved the Democratic Party timeless, timeless, times again and Black people are saying, ‘let it go folks,’” Allison, who worked as the National Coalitions Director for Biden-Harris 2020 presidential campaign, said during the segment. “And yet again, when you look at the people who have called for him to step down, they are not the backbone of the Democratic Party and that, to me, is frustrating.”
Earlier in the discussion, Allion specifically lamented that she “As a Black woman who has fewer Constitutional rights than I did the day I was born,” refuses”to live under Donald Trump’s reign again. I refuse to risk our democracy. Joe Biden is the person who is able to defeat him. I ask you, as a Democratic Party, to get it together for the people you are asked to represent. There is too much at stake.”
Watch Allion’s commentary below.
It’s been well documented that Biden’s election in 2020 was largely secured by Black voters – the same influential voting bloc that polling shows overwhelmingly supports his candidacy for reelection four years later, even if that number has dipped slightly.
With both Biden and Trump furiously courting the support of Black voters, supporting the removal of that group’s preferred candidate could turn out to be an exercise that backfires come November.
Black Democrats have been among, if not the staunchest defenders of Biden’s presidency and candidacy. Conversely, those Democrats amoplifying their desires to replace Biden with another candidate a the Party’s nominee have been led by white Congressmembers and U.S. Senators.
The commentary about the status of Biden’s candidacy comes as polling shows that Vice President Kamala Harris would fare better in an election against Trump than Biden. The poll also found that other politicians whose names have been floated as potential candidates replacing Biden on the Democratic ticket – Govs. Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom – would lose against Trump. Whitmer has said she wouldn’t run.
On the flip side, calls have grown for Harris to be the Democratic nominee in the aftermath of the debate.
Reuters, citing “seven senior sources at the Biden campaign, the White House and the Democratic National Committee with knowledge of current discussions on the topic,” reported last week that Harris, 59, is the “top alternative” presidential candidate if Biden steps aside.
Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Julián Castro, who served in President Barack Obama’s administration with Biden, also called on the president to allow a “stronger Democratic candidate” to run for the Party’s nomination.
“Defeating Donald Trump is too important for Democrats to do nothing,” Castro posted last week in a thread on X, formerly Twitter. “With the understanding that the stakes are so high, President Biden should make the difficult decision to withdraw from the race.”
Castro added that now is the time to act, noting that “Time is running out.”
Castro floated Harris’ name as a possible replacement who he said has “a better chance of winning” against Donald Trump than Biden.
That same sentiment was also expressed by Michael Arceneaux, whose new op-ed for NewsOne makes the case for Harris to be the nominee.
“Biden can spend the next week pleading his case. But if he fails, he should reconsider being the bridge candidate he promised to be and step aside for his running mate,” Arceneaux wrote.
Concerns remain about Biden’s candidacy regardless, with longtime Democratic strategist James Carville predicting that the president will drop out of the race “Whether he is ready to admit it or not.” Carville recommended in a New York Times op-ed for Democrats to have “a plan” in place when that happens.
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
‘Appalling’: Cornel West Rips ‘Senile’ Biden, ‘Trump’s Lies’ At Presidential Debate
What Are ‘Black Jobs’? Trump’s Debate Claim About Immigrants Is Mocked, Questioned
