--- title: How Operation Ditch Biden Could Start Up Again After the RNC description: Once the convention has wrapped up, two key events on Friday and Sunday could reveal whether the effort to replace Biden still has a chance. canonical: https://time.com/6998789/joe-biden-drop-out-after-rnc/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-16T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:44:31.949Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Operation Ditch Biden Could Start Up Again After the RNC og:description: Once the convention has wrapped up, two key events on Friday and Sunday could reveal whether the effort to replace Biden still has a chance. og:url: https://time.com/6998789/joe-biden-drop-out-after-rnc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt614812f9d3384311/698a58cd457a52069cd6a831/GettyImages-2161483501.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Biden Addresses The Nation From The White House Oval Office og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Operation Ditch Biden Could Start Up Again After the RNC twitter:description: Once the convention has wrapped up, two key events on Friday and Sunday could reveal whether the effort to replace Biden still has a chance. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt614812f9d3384311/698a58cd457a52069cd6a831/GettyImages-2161483501.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Operation Ditch Biden Could Start Up Again After the RNC > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=816b2bd6-b8f2-4591-99e4-d5c1ec5dcc0b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Joe Biden Gives Oval Office Address Following Trump Shooting [Watch (HLS stream): President Joe Biden Gives Oval Office Address Following Trump Shooting](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fd1X5U6M.m3u8) (6:25)  _Published 2024-07-15. President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening following the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a political rally._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jul 16, 2024 11:00 AM UTC President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening following the assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a political rally.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jul 16, 2024 11:00 AM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ Democrats who have spent the last three weeks looking for an off-ramp from Joe Biden currently find themselves on a dead-end street and no clear path out of it. The support among the party’s leaders to push the President off the ticket are not there, at least at this hour, and the sentiment seemed to have petered out at the end of last week. But the effort could quickly get a recharge if the Biden bashing at this week’s Republican convention is devastating enough to set liberals panicking again. Once the RNC has wrapped up, two key events on Friday and Sunday could reveal whether Biden’s fight to hold on to his nomination is truly over or not. On Friday, the Democratic National Committee’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet to take one last look at the technical aspects of how the delegates will select the presidential nominee. As of now, delegates awarded to Biden are, under most readings of the rules, left with no choice but to back him on the first ballot, thus guaranteeing him the nomination. Biden has said they should vote their conscience, but Biden cannot unilaterally make their call without a corresponding shift in the DNC byzantium. And on Sunday, the Committee on Credentials is set to meet to finalize who gets to access which parts of the convention floor during the Democrat’s confab in Chicago in August. It is but one way to make sure rabble rousers can’t join a floor fight for the nomination. Those are both small pieces of the political machine, sure. But ones that may end up mattering if the GOP convention this week turns brutal for Biden. And when former President Donald Trump formally acceptshis party’s nomination on Thursday, it will have been less than a week after he survived a harrowing attempt on his life. If Trump manages to meet the sobering moment with humility and to offer calls for unity amid acrimony, expect the hand-wringing over Biden to get more noticeable in a hurry. For now, the toxic—but limited—fight within the Democratic Party seems stuck in neutral, with neither side quite sure how it will get resolved. But Saturday’s attempted [assassination](https://time.com/6998250/trump-rally-shooting/) of Trump all but guaranteed shifts in the race that pundits, strategists, and voters still have not fully grasped. And Trump’s [selection](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/15/us/trump-rnc-news-biden) of 39-year-old Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate suggests the ex-President is making a hard push to break Biden’s defensive Blue Wall in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and maybe even Minnesota. For his part, Biden has [insisted](https://time.com/6996733/congress-democrats-joe-biden-nominee/) he would not step aside unless his aides showed him an unwinnable race, and so far none has. But things were tough even before Trump survived an assassination attempt, and a week of GOP invectives at Biden are not going to help. To be sure, of all the Democrats in Congress and those serving as Governors, just [7%](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/elections/biden-drop-out-democrats.html) have called on Biden to step aside. Yet that number is higher, according to what many of them are saying privately. The problem is that they lack a common plot for who would take the top gig and if she or he fares any better; Biden is known, whereas any substitute would lack the familiarity. Biden’s defenders—and those who remained on Team Joe did so with sincere belief in his chances—have reasons to keep him in the race. After all, while plenty remain worried about the down-ballot impact of his remaining the nominee, he’s not exactly a drag everywhere. In the aftermath of the debate disaster, some of the Democrats’ biggest donors doubled-down on their pledges to Senate candidates. Several new six-figure donors have emerged in recent weeks, according to a national Democrat with direct knowledge of the Senate races; one existing major donor bumped up their pledge by 50%. The party’s official campaign arm had its single best month of major donor fundraising in June since 2008, the source tells TIME. Part of that was due to the debate but strategists also credit the end-of-term Supreme Court decisions that potentially gave Trump [immunity](https://time.com/6994189/supreme-court-donald-trump-presidential-immunity-decision/). With the Court so clearly a piece of the Senate’s mandate—and coming on the heels of [_Dobbs_](https://time.com/6965160/trump-nationwide-abortion-ban-lies-essay/), which ended a federal right to abortion—the stakes were easily tapped for Democratic fundraisers. Strategists for Senate Democrats also take heart that in 46 of the 47 polls that have been put into the field since Biden and Trump effectively clinched their parties’ nomination, the Democratic frontrunner or nominee has fared better than Biden. Of those 47 surveys, the Democratic and Republican candidates were tied in just two, with Dems leading in all of the rest. The margins are between two and four points. Yet Democrats at large remain uncomfortable with the current paralysis. Just 33% of them are satisfied with the presumptive nominee. Among Republicans, 71% of them are satisfied with their nominee, according to new NBC News [polling](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-debate-aftermath-damages-biden-democratic-party-matchup-trump-unc-rcna161154). But by Monday, you could feel some of that confidence wavering. Given the programming expected in the coming days, and how much is likely to dwell on the sitting President’s competence, it’s a safe bet that even Biden’s biggest backers may find themselves asking again—even briefly—if “riding with Biden” is the best bet for the party. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ## Transcript My fellow Americans. I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics. And to remember, or we may disagree, we are not enemies. We're neighbors, we're friends, co workers, citizens, and most importantly, we're our fellow Americans. We must stand together. Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back. Take stock of where we are. How we go forward from here. Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured. I spoke to him last night. I'm grateful. He's doing well and Jill and I keep him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victims who was killed. Core was a husband, a father, a volunteer firefighter, a hero, sheltering his family from those bullets. We should all hold his family and all those injured in our prayers. Earlier today, I spoke about an ongoing investigation. We do not know the motive of the shooter yet. We don't know his opinions or affiliations. We don't know whether he had help or support, or if he communicated with anyone else. Law enforcement professionals, as I speak are investigating those questions. Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know. A former president was shot. An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot. We must not go down this road in America. We've traveled before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer, Whether with members of Congress and both parties being targeted and shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials or the kidnapping plot against the sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump. There is no place in America for this kind of violence or for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can allow this violence to be normalized. You know, the political record in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that. Yes, we have deeply felt strong disagreements. The stakes in this election are enormously high. I've said it many times that the choice in this selection we make in this election is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come. I believe that with all my soul. I know that millions of my fellow Americans believe it as well. And some have a different view as to the direction our country should take. Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It's part of human nature, but politics must never be a literal battlefield, a God forbid, a killing field. I believe politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate, to pursue justice, to make decisions guided by the Declaration of Independence in our Constitution. We stand for an America not of extremism and fury, but of decency and grace. All of us now face the time of testing as the election approaches. And the higher the stakes, the more fervent the passions become. This places an added burden on each of us to ensure that no matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence. Republican Convention will start tomorrow. I have no doubt they'll criticize my record and offer their own vision for this country. I'll be traveling this week making the case for our record and the vision my vision of the country. Our vision. I'll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy. Stand up for our Constitution, and the rule of law to call for action at the battle box. No violence on our streets. That's how democracy should work. We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our difference at the battle box. You know, that's how we do it at the battle box, not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of would be assassin. You know, the past forward, through a competing visions of the campaign should always be resolved peacefully. No through acts of violence. You know, we're blessed to live in the greatest country on Earth, and I believe that with every soul, every power of my bed. So tonight, I'm asking every American to recommit to make America make America to think about. What's made America so special? Here in America, everyone must be treated with dignity and respect, and ate must have no safe harbor. Here in America, we need to get out of our silos, where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is rampant, where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours. Let's remember, here in America, all unity is the most elusive of Gal goals right now. Nothing is more important for us now than standing together. We can do this. You know, from the beginning, our founders understood the power of passion. And so they created democracy. That gave reason and balance a chance to prevail over a brute force. That's the American we must be. An American democracy, arguments are made in good faith. An American democracy where the rule of law is respected. A American democracy where decency, dignity, fair play aren't just quaint notions, but living breathing realities. We owe that to those who come before us to those who gave their lives for this country. We owe that to ourselves. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren. Look, let's never lose sight of who we are. Let's remember we are the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. When we do it together. God bless you all to may God protect our troops. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6998789/joe-biden-drop-out-after-rnc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6998789/joe-biden-drop-out-after-rnc/"},"headline":"How Operation Ditch Biden Could Start Up Again After the RNC","datePublished":"2024-07-16T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:44:31.949Z","description":"A meeting on Friday could be key","url":"https://time.com/6998789/joe-biden-drop-out-after-rnc/","keywords":["The D.C. 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