Democrats in disarray just 45 days before Democratic National Convention

Just months after party leadership shielded President Biden from any meaningful primary challenge, Democrats are suddenly turning on their presumptive nominee and seeking to trade him just weeks before his reelection nomination becomes official.

Biden’s dismal performance in last week’s debate has sparked a sea change in party public opinion about the president’s ability to run for a second term. Many who had previously professed loyalty only to the 46th president are now calling for him to step aside and allow Vice President Kamala Harris or another promising Democrat to take his place.

But the president shows no sign of stepping down, telling a rally in Wisconsin on Friday: “I'm running and I'm going to win again.”

The controversy could have been avoided, however, if party leaders had allowed a vigorous challenge to Biden's candidacy and chosen not to overturn primary precedent to favor the incumbent.

TRUMP CHALLENGES BIDEN TO SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE — BUT THERE’S A HIT

President Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Philadelphia, April 18, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Democratic Rules and Regulations Committee voted earlier this year to adopt Biden’s own proposal to have South Carolina, a strong state that helped catapult Biden to the nomination in 2020, vote first on the Democratic nominating calendar in 2024. Under his proposal, New Hampshire and Nevada, where he was weaker in 2020, would hold primaries a few days later.

New Hampshire rejected the new rules in the 2024 primary, and Biden's name did not appear on the ballot. But he still won by a wide margin thanks to voters who wrote in his name.

Biden also delayed for months committing to a debate with his presumptive presidential rival. Biden said it “depends” on the former president’s “behavior” whether he would agree to a debate when asked by reporters in March about a face-off with Trump.

DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE PREDICTS REMOVAL OF KAMALA TO REPLACE BIDEN WOULD BE A 'KISS OF DEATH' FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

President Biden at the White House on December 13, 2023 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

After Super Tuesday, Trump invited Biden to debate “anytime, anywhere, and everywhere.” But Biden’s campaign rejected those calls, saying Trump was “attention hungry.”

“I know Donald Trump is hungry for attention and struggling to expand his appeal beyond the MAGA base, and that’s a conversation we’ll have at the appropriate time this cycle,” a Biden campaign spokesperson said at the time.

Although Biden's disastrous performance in last week's debate set off alarm bells about the president's cognitive decline, concerns about the president's mental health persisted well before the debate.

“The administration was above the conspiratorial chatter that seriously considered scenarios in which the president was suffering a shocking decline that most Americans were not seeing,” Olivia Nuzzi wrote in a recent New York Magazine op-ed.

“The president was portrayed this way by his political enemies on the right, who promoted, through what the press service called 'cheap fakes,' a caricature of a deranged creature unfit to serve. They did not want to honor these people, or those who obey their orders, by responding to them.”

With just 45 days to go until the Democratic National Convention, Biden's campaign is working to help his supporters maintain confidence in the president and dispel calls for his removal, even as major fundraisers have suspended campaign donations.

BIDEN INCREASES CAMPAIGN SPENDING AHEAD OF TERM INTERVIEW

President Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving aboard Marine One in Washington, DC, on September 4, 2023. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey publicly urged President Biden to “listen to the American people” and consider whether he is the best person to nominate the party as it tries again to defeat Trump in November.

“President Biden saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years,” Healey said in a statement released Friday by her political committee. “I am deeply grateful for his leadership. And I know he agrees that this is the most important election of our lifetimes.”

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“In the days ahead, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully assess whether he remains our best hope of defeating Donald Trump. Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”

At an Independence Day event Thursday, Biden appeared defiant, telling the crowd at the White House that he was “not going anywhere.”