I mean the question is “what would you do if he stepped aside” and he answered that, and then pivoted to “but I don’t want him to.” Maybe entertaining the hypothetical is something, but I don’t know, feels like everyone is reaching a bit here, to me.
He had the option of resisting the hypothetical though. "That's not going to happen, I'm not even going to get into that, what a ridiculous question"
Interpreted as politician-speak.... I dunno. Seems pretty far toward the "open to Biden dropping out" end
I guess since the question specified “if he decides that, and he has to decide that,” which colors how I read the response. They’re both flavors of “I support the decision he decides to make” as I’m reading it.
Idk, my read is that this is a "hi, people are largely floating a white candidate to replace Biden, that isn't happening" statement. And since I highly doubt most people calling for a switch will seriously consider Harris for totally not at all obvious reasons, this is not leaning towards a switch
Yeah, I just think the valence is just the opposite of how people are taking it. It's acknowledging a serious issue, and putting a powerful constituency firmly in the incumbents camp. This is notable. I just think that because of who that constituency is, it's generally seen as either /1
A spoiler or subordinate. Ex: how in 2020 that constituency "threw" "stole" the primary to Biden. They aren't people to be courted or counted. The headline here is that Biden/Harris just got the institutional endorsement of the most powerful pole in the Democratic tent.
