Despite attempts by "bedwetting" Democrats to steal the 2024 primary from President Joe Biden, the Democratic National Committee announced to members of its rules committee that the party would be pressing ahead with a virtual vote to formally nominate the Biden-Harris ticket in August — hoping to get the process rolling to quell attempts apparently being coordinated by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and others to replace the president at the top of the ticket.
Initially, some Biden loyalists had sought to have the nominating vote take place virtually in late July, but the roll call has now been pushed, at least a bit, into next month.
SCOOP: DNC says the virtual roll call to nominate Biden will happen in AUGUST, according to letter first obtained by CBS News
— aaron navarro (@aaronlarnavarro) July 17, 2024
Sent today by heads of the rules convention committee Gov. Walz and Leah Daughtry. DNC and DNCC have buy in.
Developing story... https://t.co/LyfEPZ456C pic.twitter.com/lT4ETBtFr2
In an email obtained by CBS News, the leaders of the DNC's rules committee — Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Leah Daughtry — sent a letter to members that "says they have confirmed with the DNC and the Democratic National Convention that 'no voting will begin before August 1" but that the process of setting up a virtual roll call vote to nominate Biden would begin as part of a meeting this Friday.
More via CBS News on progress toward the virtual vote (emphasis added):
The letter was sent to the 186 members of the convention rules committee on Wednesday, a group of Democratic convention delegates who will take part in the next formal step of setting a date to start the virtual roll call, and who will also be voting in the roll call, which could last about a week.
This follows a Tuesday letter sent by three former chairs of the Democratic National Committee that expressed support for an early virtual roll call vote.
[...]
The letter sent by Daughtry and Walz says the upcoming convention rules committee meeting on Friday will focus on how the convention will operate and discuss final rules for the convention but will not start the implementation of a "rushed virtual voting process, though we will begin our important consideration of how a virtual voting process would work."
"We will elaborate on the reasoning below as to why a virtual vote is the wisest approach, and will explain how a virtual vote would work," they write.
"On Friday, we will propose a framework for how best to proceed. Next week, we will follow up with a second meeting to consider and adopt specific rules for that purpose. No matter what may be reported, our goal is not to fast-track. Our goals are to uphold our tradition of transparency, our commitment to an effective nominating process that delivers a nominee on all state ballots, and ultimately to set our nominees on a path to victory in November," they add.
The timing of this letter comes as a group of congressional Democrats urged the DNC to cancel the virtual vote, which initially came about because of an early ballot deadline in Ohio but is now seen by some Democrats as a way to curtail "legitimate debate" about Mr. Biden's place on the Democratic ticket.
The process seeking to affirm Biden's nomination amid many doubts from prominent Democrats across the country comes as elected Democrats continue to reach new levels of disarray. As Katie covered earlier this week, Axios scooped how members of Biden's party on Capitol Hill were "reviving a fight over President Biden's candidacy following a brief respite in the wake of Saturday's assassination attempt against former President Trump" with a "letter circulating among congressional Democrats [which] argues that there is 'no legal justification' for an early virtual roll call after Ohio moved its filing deadline past the date of the Democratic convention."
Axios reported an update to the situation on Wednesday saying that plans to send the letter had been "scrapped" because of the DNC's decision to push the virtual vote to August.
The continued mayhem on the Democrats' side of the election has completely gutted Biden and his party's ability to keep focus on the Republican National Convention underway in Milwaukee.
Could moving ahead with the — albeit pushed back — week-long virtual roll call vote be an attempt to prevent a televised mutiny on the convention floor among delegates? Is the DNC really that terrified that the opinion that Biden should be booted from the ticket shared by nearly two-thirds of Democrats surveyed by AP/NORC has infected 2024 DNC delegates?
It would be devastating to the party and whoever ultimately tops the ticket for America to watch a live, in-person roll call vote devolve into chaos if it was held as normal.