Both before the November 5 presidential election and after, there’s been plenty of talk about President Joe Biden stepping down and making Vice President Kamala Harris America’s first female president. Despite ardent backing from Democratic Party stalwarts, the idea isn’t a popular one, as the latest I&I/TIPP poll indicates.
Some Democrat activists, humbled by the Electoral College drubbing they took from former (and soon to be current) President Donald Trump, have pushed hard to have the age-hobbled Biden step down from the office of the presidency so that Kamala can take over and make history — and also, perhaps, to make a big noise that would steal some of Trump’s pre-inauguration thunder.
To find out who supports the idea, the online national I&I/TIPP Poll asked 1,436 adults the following question:
“Which of the following do you believe is in the best interest of the country?”, followed by these choices: “Biden should finish his term,” “Biden should step down and hand over the presidency to Harris,” “Biden should be removed from office using the 25th amendment,” and “Not sure.”
The poll, taken from Nov. 7 to Nov. 8, has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.
A majority of Americans — 54% — say they do not want Biden to leave office, they want him to finish his term.
And only 16% say he should voluntarily step down and let Harris become president.
For the first time since we started asking this question, more than half of all voters want Biden to finish the 10 weeks remaining in his term.
A slightly larger share, 16%, want him removed from office by use of the 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a a president who “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” In the event of such an event, the vice president becomes the president.
The remaining 14% aren’t sure.
What’s perhaps most interesting here is that Democrats, who enthusiastically embraced the idea of Kamala Harris’ accidental candidacy for the presidency, are the biggest foes of having Biden step down to yield his post to the current veep.
Among Democrats, 63% want Biden to remain in office, along with 50% of Republicans and 52% of independents.
As for the idea that Biden should resign to let Harris make history, if only for less than three months, only 24% of Dems support the idea, while 9% of Republicans and 17% of independent and third-party voters agree.
How about removing Biden via the 25th amendment? Again, no major party or broad-based voter group supports the idea, with 5% of Democrats, 28% of Republicans and 15% of independents saying it would be a good thing.
So, with no real voting constituency backing the idea of Biden leaving office right away, it’s likely to go nowhere.
Even so, that hasn’t stopped the movement to have Biden quit (again) and give Harris the job, thus accomplishing with bureaucratic legerdemain what couldn’t be accomplished at the ballot box. Far from it.
Just last week, Jamal Simmons, Vice President Harris’ former communications director, called on Biden to step down so that Harris could take the job.
“Joe Biden’s been a phenomenal president, he’s lived up to so many of the promises he’s made. There’s one promise left that he could fulfill, being a transitional figure,” Simmons told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris President of the United States.”
Why? “It would absolve her from having to oversee the January 6th transition of her own defeat. And it would make sure, it would dominate the news, at a point where Democrats have to learn, drama and transparency and doing things the public want to see. This is the moment for us to change the entire perspective of how Democrats operate.”
The idea has legs. The Washington Post on Nov. 13 even ran an op-ed with the suggestive title “Biden’s legacy is secure, but he could augment it by stepping aside.”
Will it happen? The Washington Examiner asked a number of “senior White House officials” whether Biden would consider doing it. The response: Not likely.
“There’s a sense that we tried to jam Vice President Harris down voters’ throats instead of hold an open primary,” one official said. “This certainly wouldn’t make that feeling go away.”
Another was even more blunt, saying that Biden was unlikely to “gift the vice president an honor she didn’t actually earn.”
Still, it’s happened before.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon, besieged by the Watergate scandal and watching his presidency go down in flames, voluntarily resigned and was replaced by Vice President Gerald Ford, who subsequently lost in 1976 to outsider Democrat Jimmy Carter.
And there is the remote possibility that Biden’s tenure could end involuntarily by removing him from office.
The 25th amendment to the Constitution states that, if Biden’s cabinet chose, they could declare Biden mentally unfit to carry on the duties of the presidency and send him packing after informing both houses of Congress. He would then be replaced by Vice President Harris.
Will they do that? Despite the debate, unlikely. As the I&I/TIPP Poll clearly shows, nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to finish his term in office. Would Democratic Party officials in effect remove Biden from office a second time without votes?
Even CNN host Dana Bash threw cold water on Simmons’ idea: “This has now jumped from an internet meme to a Sunday morning show,” she said.
So those Democrats like Simmons who want to make Harris president even though she was beaten soundly in the general election are likely to be disappointed.
And if you think Biden will resign on his own, that’s not likely: Just look at the picture of him beaming as he greeted victorious MAGA leader and former President Donald Trump back to the White House.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
TIPP Takes
Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, And More
1. Lebanon’s Hezbollah Open To U.S. Ceasefire Deal With Israel – Al Arabiya
While there has been no explicit agreement on the draft Washington delivered to Beirut last week, Lebanon’s Hezbollah has provided “positive indications” that it is prepared for a deal, according to sources involved in the talks.
Amos Hochstein, a senior U.S. aide to President Joe Biden, is on standby, prepared to travel to Beirut based on Lebanon’s official response in the coming days. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of the Shia militant group, is negotiating on behalf of the Lebanese government as well as Hezbollah.
2. Israeli Strike On Beirut Kills Hezbollah Spokesman Afif – D.W.
Mohammed Afif, a Hezbollah media relations officer, was targeted in a rare Israeli strike in central Beirut. Afif was part of the inner circle of the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Afif was responsible for the Iran-backed militia’s media relations for years, providing information to local and foreign journalists, often anonymously. After Nasrallah’s killing, Afif held several press conferences in Beirut’s southern suburbs, including one last month that had to be cut short due to the threat of an Israeli strike nearby.
3. Pope Francis Suggests International Study Into Possible Genocide In Gaza – Reuters
“We should investigate carefully to assess whether this fits into the technical definition (of genocide) formulated by international jurists and organizations,” the pope said in the excerpts published from a new forthcoming book.
Francis, leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful not to take sides in international conflicts, and to stress de-escalation. But he has stepped up his criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war against Hamas recently.
4. Biden To Allow Ukraine To Use Us Weapons Inside Russia: Reports – Al Jazeera
Three sources familiar with the matter, including two U.S. officials, told Reuters that Ukraine plans to carry out long-range attacks using the weapons in the coming days.
The White House has not commented on the reports, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the missiles would “speak for themselves”. The move comes as Joe Biden heads into his final months in U.S. office, with successor Donald Trump believed to be more favorable towards Russia.
5. ‘Massive’ Russian Attack Causes Ukraine Blackouts – BBC
A “massive” Russian missile and drone attack has targeted power infrastructure across Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said its thermal energy plants had suffered “significant damage”, resulting in blackouts. The country’s state-owned energy operator, Ukrenergo, says it will enforce “restriction measures” for Ukraine on Monday.
6. China And Saudi Arabia Build Ties Beyond Trade Via Financial Channels – Nikkei Asia
In the same week of the U.S. elections, China’s Ministry of Finance announced it would, sell up to $2 billion of debt in Saudi Arabia, marking Beijing’s first U.S. dollar sovereign debt issuance in three years.
The issuance was almost 20 times oversubscribed. Saudi Arabia seeks to build its capital markets to help transform the oil-dependent economy, while China looks to export away its overcapacity problems and attract foreign money.
7. China To Tighten Export Curbs On Critical Metals Ahead Of Trump’s Return – Nikkei Asia
China plans to tighten export controls on key “dual-use” technologies and items in two weeks, including raw materials and metals such as tungsten, graphite, magnesium, and aluminum alloys used commonly in tech supply chains.
China’s Commerce Ministry unveiled detailed specifications of dual-use technologies and items – used for both civilian and military purposes – that will fall under the country’s export controls. The rules take effect on Dec. 1.
8. German Manufacturers Warn Of The Sector’s ‘Formidable Crash’ – BBC
In the 44 years since Beckhoff Automation opened for business, owner Hans Beckhoff says he hasn’t seen an economic crisis like this one. “You can usually expect a crisis about once every five to eight years,” says Mr Beckhoff. “This time, it’s a formidable crash, a really deep one.”
It belongs to Germany’s famous Mittelstand, the often highly specialized small and medium-sized enterprises that makeup 99% of German companies, provide around 59% of German jobs, and are considered the “hidden champions” of the German economy.
9. Japanese Troops To Start Deployments In Australia – D.W.
About 2,000 U.S. Marines are stationed in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, for six months each year.
The deployment is in response to growing worries among Washington and its allies about China’s increasing military strength in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, an elite marine unit, will be deployed to Darwin to work and train alongside Australian and U.S. forces regularly.
10. North Korea’s Kim Calls For Bolstering Nuclear Forces ‘Without Limitation,’ Completing War Preparations – Yonhap
According to the KCNA, the North Korean leader made the remark during the Conference of Battalion Commanders and Political Instructors of the Korean People’s Army, which was the first such conference in 10 years.
He also called trilateral cooperation by South Korea, the United States and Japan a “critical” factor that threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. “U.S.-led military alliance has been expanding into more larger areas encompassing Europe and the Asia-Pacific region,” Kim said.
11. The Stock Market Is Doing Something Witnessed Only 3 Times In 153 Years – The Motley Fool
Since 2024 began, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite have all ascended to multiple record-closing highs. But when things seem too good to be true on Wall Street, they usually are.
An encompassing valuation tool, and the metric currently making history, is the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E ratio, also referred to as the cyclically adjusted P/E ratio or CAPE Ratio. As of the closing bell on Nov. 13, the S&P 500’s Shiller P/E clocked in at 38.18, more than double its average reading of 17.17 when back-tested to January 1871.
12. Renowned Analyst Says Bitcoin, Ethereum And Altcoins Close To The Point Where Investors Can ‘Buy The Dip’ – Benzinga
Renowned analyst Michael van de Poppe has identified that Bitcoin and Ethereum are approaching levels where purchasing on dips could prove beneficial.
He pointed out that Bitcoin is nearing its first major point of interest for traders. Ethereum, priced at $3,040, is also nearing an optimal entry point. Van de Poppe’s strategy for the near future involves buying dips, with altcoins expected to see significant breakouts.
13. Experts Advise To Stop Worrying About Holiday Weight Gain – HealthDay News
According to a new survey, about 39% of Americans worry about derailing their healthy eating habits during the holidays. The survey found that people are more likely to do themselves a disservice by overcorrecting for a bit of holiday indulgence.
Dietitians say there’s no need to feel guilty about enjoying a few treats. Instead of winging it during the holidays, dietitian Sara Riehm recommends that people seek the guidance of a registered dietitian who can help them craft a personalized diet plan to get them through.
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
