After months of insisting that President Joe Biden was up to the task of running for reelection, prominent Democrats wasted very little time calling for him to reevaluate those plans in the wake of Thursday’s “disastrous” first presidential debate on CNN.
From former Obama administration advisors (David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Van Jones) to media types (Joy Reid, Nicholas Kristof, Joe Scarborough), panic seemed to set in quickly for the left as Biden stumbled through his showdown with former President Donald Trump.
Rumors have been swirling for months about who could possibly replace Biden at the top of the Democrat ticket, and now that speculation is only growing. Michelle Obama’s name has been bandied about as a potential savior, and, on Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Steve Bannon to discuss how the former first lady could be tapped for the job.
Replacement Theory
Bannon believes the United States could soon be facing a “constitutional crisis” due to the national security concerns related to Biden’s performance in the debate, but he also believes the Democratic Party is looking at a “political crisis.”
Should Biden remain the 2024 nominee, Bannon said the GOP could “wipe out a generation of Democratic politicians” by overtaking the House and Senate in November. “Right now, it’s a 10 or 15 point loss [for Biden], [Republicans] are going to pick up Senate seats, they’re going to have 25 House seats, and they’re going to wipe out the Democratic Party,” he explained. “[Democrats] won’t stand for that… [so] they’re searching for a messiah, whether it’s Michelle Obama or Gavin Newsom.”
The Axios Report
While it was the California governor who was making the media rounds on cleanup duty for Biden on Thursday night, Bannon said there is reason to believe the groundwork is being laid for the former first lady to step in. “Axios had that story yesterday morning – no coincidences on the day of the debate – [saying] Michelle Obama is not a partisan, she’s a uniter, and, more importantly, she detests the feral dog nature of the Biden family,” Bannon noted.
Axios’ Alex Thompson reported on Thursday that Obama has “privately expressed frustration” over the way the Bidens have treated Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and her “close friend” Kathleen Buhle following the former couple’s “messy divorce.”
The piece went on to say that “family tensions” and Obama’s “disdain for partisan politics” explain “why one of the most popular Democratic voices hasn’t campaigned” for Biden yet. “Axios kind of is the Washington consensus,” Bannon said. “It’s not a random event that they had Michelle Obama as the scoop and the lead story on the morning of the debate and particularly framed it that she doesn’t like the way the Bidens roll.”
The Possible Switcheroo
Of all the possible replacements who have been floated as an alternative to Biden, Bannon believes Obama “would be the most competitive” because she would harken back “to the nostalgia [Democrats] have for the Obama administration” and also “take care of the Kamala Harris situation.”
The “situation” with the sitting vice president is, as Megyn has previously discussed, that it would be challenging for a party so focused on DEI to bypass a black woman. Even so, Megyn said “the Democratic Party doesn’t like Kamala Harris.”
Bannon said that fact became even clearer in the wake of the debate. “I think they gave [Harris] a small trial last night… [rolling] her out on CNN and MSNBC and she once again failed miserably,” he noted. “She can’t even answer a straight question… I mean, she’s only a couple of notches down from the impaired Joe Biden.”
That his why, he said, Harris presents “a problem” but “not an unsolvable problem” for Dems. “They don’t have a simple and easy solution,” he admitted. But he could see a world in which Obama comes in as the presidential nominee, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor retires, and Harris is named as her replacement. “There will be some three-card monte to this,” he concluded.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Bannon by tuning in to episode 826 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.