Conservative talk show host Wayne Dupree believes Vice President Kamala Harris may be in "hiding" to preserve her 2024 prospects, the Conservative Brief reported. This comes amid months of rumors that Democrats are looking for an excuse to replace her on the reelection ticket.
President Joe Biden has yet to officially announce whether he'll run for another term in 2024. However, he has repeatedly stated his intention to pursue a reelection bid each time he's asked.
Harris has also stated she will remain on the ballot with him in 2024, even as rumors swirl about possibly replacing her. In the meantime, Democrats are concerned because there's no viable alternative for either of them.
Harris has flubbed the few items she was tasked with handling, but it seems her new strategy is to hide behind Biden to allow him to take the brunt of their collective failures. Dupree believes it may have been a plan all along.
“Well, they can’t do it under the gun. So it won’t be immediate," Dupree said of possibly swapping out Biden for Harris on the 2024 ticket as another option.
"If this was indeed a plan then Biden knows he was a patsy president and will be ready to resign probably next spring. If not, there could be some pushback from Team Biden directed at Team Obama/Harris," Dupree added.
"Biden may be just sentient enough to resent being pushed out of power. And it could be that Harris is being kept in the shadows to insulate her from criticism and keep her pristine for her chance at becoming president," the host of the "Wayne Dupree Show" said.
It may not be enough to make a dent, however. Many Democrats and left-leaning publications have been pushing hard for her ouster. A Slate article published last November made no bones about it with the title, "If Biden Runs Again, He Should Pick a New VP."
Author Christina Cauterucci conceded that "we are stuck with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris" at the moment, she went on to say Biden had the option to "change that" in his 2024 reelection bid. Similarly, Garry South writing for "Capitol Weekly" warned that Harris was an anchor.
"Despite her obvious intelligence, Harris just isn’t very good, I’m sorry to say, either as a candidate or communicator," he wrote in a piece titled "Memo to Democrats: Beware of Kamala Harris, in 2024 or beyond" also published in November. "When it comes to Harris and 2024 – or beyond — Democrats would be wise to bear in mind the old time-honored caution, caveat emptor."
However, probably the most incisive of such pieces was published in The Intelligencer in May of last year. "There Has to Be a Backup Plan. There’s a Backup Plan, Right? Inside the 2024 soul-searching that’s happening in every corner of the Democratic Party," author Gabriel Debenedetti titled the article, summing up that sentiment.
Unfortunately, Democrats may be asking the wrong question when it comes to Harris. A recent Associated Press-NORC poll revealed that only 37% of Democrats want a second term for Biden, which is down 15 percentage points from last October, leaving the Party stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Still, if either Biden or Harris decides not to run, Democrats could be in for a rough election season next year with nobody to take their place. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had been quietly positioning himself as a viable alternative to Harris until he effectively ruined his prospects by mishandling the East Palestine train derailment disaster.
Democrats are going to have a hard time convincing the American people that things are better off since they took office. The 2024 election is highly favorable to the GOP -- that is if they can keep the infighting to a minimum.
