Rantz: Seattle activists plan march pushing Joe Biden to drop out of race
Jul 19, 2024, 9:55 AM | Updated: 10:00 am
(Photo: Jason Rantz)
After a successful and undoubtedly united Republican convention in Milwaukee, politicos head into the weekend wondering if President Joe Biden will drop out of the race. A small group of Seattle activists are hoping to do their part to nudge Biden along.
The unidentified activists created a website, Pass the Baton, Joe. They said they’re “a group of concerned citizens who think that the current situation is untenable.” The march, promoted mostly via flyers in Seattle, said the march will happen Monday at 7 p.m. They will meet at Westlake Park and march towards the Seattle Center. The activists argue that a march is necessary because “phoning and emailing our representatives hasn’t worked.”
“The Democratic Party is deferring to the President and he is not willing to consider that concerns about his health might cost him – and all of us — the race. Time is running out. We can spend our time doom-scrolling and hope for the best. Or we come together and let Biden and the DNC know that it isn’t just ‘elites and the media’ who want a stronger candidate and a more aggressive campaign. It is the voters who supported him in the last election,” the website read.
More from Jason Rantz: Mukilteo Council member Trump’s ‘rhetoric caused one of his supporters to be killed’
Why are activists in Seattle marching against Joe Biden?
The march may be too late. Some outlets report Biden may announce he’s dropping out of the race this weekend.
The Biden campaign team said that’s not true. They insist he’ll be back campaigning after he recovers from his third COVID-19 infection. And he’ll come out of the COVID haze stronger than ever. MSNBC homophobic conspiracy theorist Joy Reid said recovering from COVID at Biden’s age shows as much strength as recovering from an assassination attempt as Trump did last week in Pennsylvania.
While Seattle activists tend to be far-left, one high-profile progressive posterchild has been “riding with Biden.”
Squad leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to Instagram Live on Friday morning to again back Biden and share her own conspiracy theory. She implied that there’s a move to ensure neither Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris remain on the ticket.
“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave … that they will support, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” she explained. She went on to call former president Donald Trump a “neo-Nazi,” an indication that the Democrat base has zero interest in toning down the rhetoric.
Not all progressives are on Biden’s side.
Far-left Rep. Marc Pocan (D-WI) became one of the latest Democrats to call for Biden to drop out. Squad grandmother Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) took time out of her campaign to demonize Israel and Jews to let voters know she remains non-committal. That is hardly the full-throated defense the Joe Biden campaign wanted as the calls to drop out of the race grow louder.
What if Biden drops out over the weekend?
The activists behind the march said if Biden drops out over the weekend, they will cancel the march and that “[t]raffic will be better around Westlake.” But if Biden stays in, they’ll be moving forward as planned.
It’s unclear how many people are expected to attend. But the organizers said on their website that they want it to be peaceful. They also hope messaging is exclusively about Biden dropping out. They ask people to “save any other issues for a different protest.”
“You might be voting blue and we are, too. If Biden is the nominee, we will support him. But there are too many voters who are undecided or who might abstain entirely if Biden runs. We need those voters if we want to defeat Trump. They need someone to vote for, not just against,” the website said.
Listen to “The Jason Rantz Show” on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason on X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.