Jamal Simmons, a former communications director for Kamala Harris, made an unlikely suggestion about how the vice president might still have a chance of becoming president in 2024: If Joe Biden steps down from office.
Asked on Sunday what they thought would be the most important thing to watch for in the 71 days until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, panelists on CNN’s “State of the Union” Scott Jennings, Ashley Allison and Brad Todd pointed to the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza or Trump’s actions while setting up his administration.
Simmons went in a different direction. Biden, he said, “could resign the presidency in the next 30 days (and) make Kamala Harris the president of the United States.”
“Joe Biden’s been a phenomenal president,” Simmons said. “He’s lived up to so many of the promises he’s made. There’s one promise left that he can fulfill: being a transitional figure.”
There is no evidence Biden would consider leaving office before the end of his term. The move, Simmons argued, would keep Harris from having to oversee “her own defeat” when the presidential election is certified in the Senate, and “it would dominate the news at a point where Democrats have to learn” to grab the public’s attention.
The vice president also serves as the president of the Senate, including when Congress certifies the results of a presidential race. Host Dana Bash said that the idea had “jumped from an internet meme to a Sunday morning show.”
Others have joked about Biden clearing a potential path for Harris.
For example, “Pod Save America” co-host and former speechwriter for former President Barack Obama Jon Lovett said Harris’s loss meant that “Jimmy Carter has to stay alive for four more years now.”
