Act of Desperation? Biden’s Team Checks Delegates for Loyalty
Phone calls begin with boilerplate, they say, then ask: ‘Is there any reason you couldn’t or wouldn’t support the president?’
President Joe Biden is seen on a screen.
President Joe Biden is seen on a screen as he delivers remarks at a meeting of the heads of state of the North Atlantic Council at the 2024 NATO Summit on July 10 in Washington. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
By Jonathan Martin
07/10/2024 05:21 PM EDT
Fearing a floor revolt against his nomination, President Biden’s aides are telephoning individual delegates to next month’s Democratic convention to gauge their loyalty to the president, according to three delegates who received a call this week.
After a round of introductory questions confirming each delegate was still planning on going to Chicago and asking if they had served as delegate before, the Biden aide making the calls got to the point, the Democratic activists recalled to me in separate interviews.
One of the delegates said the line of questioning turned with an inquiry along the lines of, “Do you understand what being a pledged delegate means?” before the aide asked: “Do you have any potential disagreements with the president?”
Another delegate said the bottom-line question was even more direct. “‘Is there any reason you couldn’t or wouldn’t support the president at the convention?’” the delegate recalled the aide asking.
The third delegate said the version he received was more open-ended: “’Do you have any concerns?’”
The delegates were thunderstruck at the calls. One of them initially wondered if it was some sort of prank until double-checking the caller ID and seeing Delaware’s area code, 302. After hanging up, each of them reached out to other convention delegates they knew and found these individuals also received the calls.
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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/10/act-of-desperation-bidens-team-checks-delegates-for-loyalty-00167393
