The Democratic National Convention is set to follow through on plans for an early roll call nominating President Biden as their presidential candidate next month.
DNC Rules Committee members voted Friday for a virtual roll call on August 7 to certify Biden’s victory, despite widespread upset over what many call visible mental decline.
The nearly 200 committee members will meet again on or before July 26 to formally adopt the virtual roll call format. The vote itself is expected to serve as a mere rubber stamp for the Biden campaign.
President Biden is planning campaign events weeks in advance, preparing to hit the ground running after his current illness with a high-profile fundraiser.
The Biden-Harris ticket is holding a fundraising event on July 29th in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, that will feature special guests — talk show legend David Letterman and Hawaiia Gov. Josh Green.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will be in attendance.
Green, who has been governor of Hawaii since 2022, is a personal friend of the Bidens. The governor is among the administration’s closest political allies.
Axios reported that Biden has started laying out his travel plans as he recovers from COVID-19 at his Delaware beach house in Rehoboth. He has resisted calls from his party to step down, with his communications team holding a remote press conference on Saturday to push the argument for a second Biden term.
The calls for Biden to step down has drawn over 30 sitting Democrat congressmembers: Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, on Friday urged Biden to ‘end his campaign,’ arguing that ‘our full attention must return to these important issues.’
One senior Democrat official told Axios that the entire issue feels ‘stuck’ at the moment, adding that it’s ‘not to say it’s going to stay stuck.’
Senior officials are pushing Biden to make a final decision over the weekend and have continued arguing with Biden advisers as to why bowing out would best serve the party.
‘It’s a fairly universal sentiment internally that we have reached the end of the road,’ one Biden aide admitted, noting that some key hold-outs will keep fighting to keep Biden in the race.