An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal has thrown cold water on the idea that President Joe Biden will drop out of the presidential race before formally becoming his party’s nominee by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
The reason: he cannot hand over the $100 million in his campaign committee’s accounts to Vice President Kamala Harris or any other candidate until he formally becomes the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
Election lawyer Charlie Spies wrote this week:
In short: Before the nomination officially goes to Mr. Biden, his campaign is limited to donating $2,000 to the Democratic nominee, whether that new standard bearer is Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer or Ms. Harris.
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In August 2023 the Biden for President campaign amended its FEC Form 1 to assert on Line 5 that the committee was the principal campaign committee for both Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris. At the time nobody had reason to question that maneuver, and if at the Democratic convention Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris emerge as their party’s nominees, then there won’t be a need to challenge the premature designation. If, however, Mr. Biden were to drop out before being nominated and attempt an unprecedented and possibly illegal unlimited transfer of funds to Ms. Harris, the courts would likely interpret the plain language of the statute to prohibit such a contribution.
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If President Biden is committed to passing the torch to his vice president, and wants to be able to seed her campaign with the current Biden for President campaign war chest, he’ll first have to become his party’s legal nominee. After shuffling through the Democratic National Committee’s planned roll call vote he’d be free to drop out. Ms. Harris could seamlessly slip into the driver’s seat. That’s a risky strategy, as it requires maintaining an obvious fiction under intense public scrutiny for another six weeks.
The problem with Biden’s current status as the “presumptive” nominee — with no legal status — may be part of the motivation for Democrats to pursue an early, “virtual” nomination prior to the convention in Chicago.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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