Trump's allies want to keep Biden on the ballot in a number of states to retain a GOP advantage in a race that at the moment leans in their favor.
Luke Hales and Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
For most of President Joe Biden's White House tenure, Republicans have floated theories about the president's health and cast doubt on the veteran Democrat's leadership.
The president has long argued that his age is an asset in the 2024 race, while touting accomplishments like the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
But Biden's widely panned debate performance — which voters in multiple surveys said was won by former President Donald Trump — only served to raise new questions about his fitness for office.
Biden sought to use the debate to gain some momentum in a race that for weeks showed him tied with Trump in national polls.
However, Trump still remains ahead in multiple national surveys, including recent polls from USA Today/Suffolk University (Trump +3 among lead among registered voters) and The New York Times/Siena College (Trump +6 among likely voters).
Despite Trump's myriad legal issues and questions surrounding his own temperament and fitness for office, Biden's struggles have been a boon for the ex-president's campaign. And his allies want to keep Biden on the ballot in a number of states — as they aim to retain an advantage in a race that at the moment leans in their favor.
Instead of Democrats being able to focus fully on the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, as well as the Supreme Court's more recent ruling on presidential immunity, they've been in crisis mode over Biden's predicament.
Biden has insisted that he won't drop his reelection bid despite a Times report indicating that he was at mulling over such a decision. But another recent Times report detailing alleged lapses from Biden have only created more shockwaves in Washington.
For more than three years, Biden has overseen an administration where there have been leaks that were few and far between.
So the concerns regarding his health have not only zapped much of the energy from his own campaign message this week, but it has also worried some vulnerable lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
In the weeks leading up the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, this is not where the Biden campaign thought it'd be.
And Republicans are thrilled that the heat — for now — is off Trump.
Despite the GOP optimism, Trump is not leading in national polls by insurmountable margins, even with Biden's stumbles.
The electorate remains deeply polarized, and should Biden regain support in the coming days and weeks, the race could easily tighten once again. In politics, there are no guarantees.
But Trump's conservative allies have long eyed ballot rules under a scenario in which Biden could potentially leave the race, and they are preemptively floating legal action to keep the president on statewide ballots should he step aside as the Democratic nominee, according to The Washington Post.
"Our research has basically uncovered that it's extraordinarily complicated and absolutely ripe for ample opportunities for litigation," Heritage Foundation Oversight Project executive director Mike Howell told the newspaper.
Trump had been relatively quiet as other Republicans pummeled Democrats over their Biden dilemma. That ended recently, though, with Trump blasting the president's debate performance in a video that was provided to The Daily Beast. Trump in the video also took a swipe at Vice President Kamala Harris — who'd be perhaps the top potential replacement should Biden forgo a reelection bid — calling her "bad."
But the former president is not in the clear in the eyes of the public, despite this week's Supreme Court ruling. The 34 felony convictions from his Manhattan hush-money case and him being found liable for sexual assault are still weighing on the minds of voters — especially independents who aren't particularly thrilled with him.
Should Biden step aside, a more popular Democrat — backed by a party itching to defeat Trump again — could easily dispatch the former president in November. And Republicans know it.
