Seemingly every day, a new scenario is revealed how the left might remove Joe Biden and insert another candidate for the presidential election.  Heather Higgins, writing for RealClearPolitics, and covered by Thomas Lifson on AT, believes that the DNC will unleash a “September Surprise” after the Democrat National Convention (August 19–22), in which Joe Biden steps down — say, for some new health reason — and is replaced by Michelle Obama, who at this point will not even have to campaign against or vie with other potential Democrat candidates, including Kamala Harris.  Higgins cites precedents for late-candidate “switcheroos” as well as DNC rules requiring merely a vote of the 483 DNC members.  Regarding how long the Democrats can wait before making a switch, Higgins suggests it may be October 1.

Here is another possible scenario.  Based on overwhelming evidence proving Joe Biden’s corruption, the House, possibly with unanimous Republican support, impeaches Slow Joe.  In the middle of the Senate vote on conviction and removal from office, Democrats, claiming they want no part of this purely political witch hunt so close to an election — a narrative that will be supported by a compliant MSM—collectively storm out of the chamber.  All that’s needed for removal from office is two thirds of those senators present, and the stunned Republicans succeed in removing Joe Biden from office, doing the Democrats’ dirty work for them and, as a bonus, sparing individual Democrats from Dr. Jill’s ire.  Alternatively, a sufficient number of Democrats surprisingly join the Republicans in voting to remove Biden from office.  The Democratic National Convention is then left open for Michelle Obama to defeat Kamala Harris, avoiding the race card issue.  Or perhaps lame-duck President Harris, in exchange for not running (she’d likely lose to Donald Trump anyway), is given a secret incentive to pardon (after the elections but before January 20) Joe & Family.  If the Senate vote succeeding in Biden’s removal does not occur until shortly after the Democratic convention, as in Higgins’s scenario, DNC members get to select a preferable alternative.

Article 3, Sec 1(c) of the Charter in the The Charter & The Bylaws of the Democrat Party of the U.S. states that “between National Conventions,” the DNC has the responsibility of “filling vacancies in the nominations for the office of President and Vice President.”  Essentially identical language appears in the bylaws, Article 2, Sec. 1(c), as cited by Higgins.  That language suggests that the vice president slot cannot be changed if only the president slot is vacated, which comports with the language in the 2024 Call for the Democratic National Convention:

Filling a Vacancy on the National Ticket: In the event of death, resignation or disability of a nominee of the Party for President or Vice President after the adjournment of the National Convention, the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee shall confer with the Democratic leadership of the United States Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and shall report to the Democratic National Committee, which is authorized to fill the vacancy or vacancies.

So it seems that if Biden is removed shortly after the convention, in both Higgins’s September Surprise and the Senate removal vote scenarios, Michelle would be stuck with Kamala as a running mate.

ABC News lays out the sometimes thorny ramifications of a national ticket vacancy depending on the date when a nominated candidate withdraws.  Biden’s removal in the period between Election Day and the Electoral College vote (December 17) likely would result in electors casting votes.  Regarding after December 17, ABC says the following:

If the president-elect dies or is incapacitated after the Electoral College votes [Dec. 17] but before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, the law is clear: the vice president-elect would be inaugurated instead. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution says, in part, "If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President."

So if the Biden-Harris ticket wins the general election and the Senate vote occurring in this time interval results in Biden’s removal from office, the country would be stuck at the outset with Kamala as president.  Presumably, even the Democrats don’t want that.

A contributing factor to the 49ers’ loss to the Chiefs in the latest Super Bowl is that they were not familiar with the new overtime rules, and after winning the overtime coin toss, they chose unwisely to receive the ball first.  I sure hope the Republicans study the vacancy issue carefully to get the timing of the impeachment process just right so they don’t get burned once again by the Democrats and the Deep State.

W.A. Eliot is a pseudonym.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.