The tumult within the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s fitness for office and ability to win in November has become rich fodder for right-wing conspiracy theories.
One running theory, as The New York Times reported Friday, is that Biden’s poor debate performance was somehow the result of a sly maneuver by Democratic Party elites to push him off the ticket:
Details about the conspiracy theory surrounding Mr. Biden vary depends on who is telling it. But the broad strokes are usually the same: that Democratic Party elites have been scheming to replace Mr. Biden with another preferred candidate. Sabotaging Mr. Biden with a bad debate performance would give those elites a chance to anoint a replacement, the theory goes. The last-minute change would bypass the protracted primary process that can sometimes embarrass or tarnish candidates, allowing them to undermine Democratic primary voters in the process. They would also short-circuit the Republican counteroffensive.
The theory aligns with an unfounded claim that has long circulated among the right and has even been promoted by some prominent Republican lawmakers — that the party has secretly wanted to replace Biden on the top of the ticket with another Democrat, such as former first lady Michelle Obama.
It’s not unlikely that that conspiracy theory is rooted in Biden’s pronounced aging — after all, he already was the oldest person to be elected president in the U.S. But there’s no evidence whatsoever that Democrats have been working behind the scenes to push him out; the fact that the party is in such disarray right now should speak to that. The party’s woes have nothing to do with an imaginary plot to toss him off the ticket and everything to do with the reality of his age.
But there’s no evidence whatsoever that Democrats have been working behind the scenes to push him out; the fact that the party is in such disarray right now should speak to that.
The theory also is directly contradicted by another conspiracy theory: that Democrats and the media have been conspiring to shield the public from the truth about Biden’s health. Furthermore, with Vice President Kamala Harris viewed as a potential replacement should Biden step aside, years-old conspiracy theories about her are making a comeback.
It’s no surprise that such absurd ideas are so rife among the right: Republicans have long embraced conspiracy theories. And their standard-bearer, who launched his political career with a racist lie about then-President Barack Obama, remains one of the fiercest peddlers of the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
But as we’ve seen, these conspiracy theories are often in conflict with one another — and they make even less sense when taken together.
Clarissa-Jan Lim
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for MSNBC Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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