On Friday, social media users had a field day mocking a memo suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris should replace President Biden as the Democratic candidate for president.
The memo, called “Unburdened by What Has Been: The Case for Kamala,” was reportedly shared by big Democratic donors and political groups after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
“There’s one path out of this mess, and it’s Kamala,” the document claims. It argues that Harris is the only candidate who can take over right now and win, emphasizing her so-called electoral advantages.
The memo’s title references one of Harris’s infamous confusing speeches. It was supposedly written by “senior operatives within Democratic political institutions” who have no personal or professional ties to Harris. They state their goal clearly: “We simply want to defeat Trump.”
The authors paint a rosy picture where Harris, 59, “comes out of the convention with momentum and a significant bump in polling” and then “demolishes an incoherent and extremist Trump in the debate.” They envision her winning by a landslide and bringing a Democratic House and Senate with her.
However, many social media users weren’t buying it. National Review’s Noah Rothman sarcastically tweeted, “I can only assume that’s when the edibles kicked in,” referring to the memo’s fantasy about Harris crushing Trump in a debate.
Others echoed Rothman’s skepticism. One user noted it was “quite the fantasy” to think that the “worst debater in the field from the Democratic 2020 primaries will ride to a landslide on the power of her debate performance.” Another described the memo as a “rejected West Wing script” and “fan fiction bordering on parody.”
One user jokingly suggested “Like it or Not, Kamala 2024” as a campaign slogan, while another expressed concern about the state of the country if our next leader is being pitched in a shared Google doc.
Despite all this, Biden insists he will not drop out of the race, even though several polls suggest he could lose to Trump after his poor debate performance last month.