Writing On Wall For Biden: Campaign Tests Harris, Senior Aides Turn On Biden

The New York Times reporting two major scoops in the last hour. First, that the Biden campaign is "quietly" testing the strength of Vice President Kamala Harris in a match-up with former President Donald Trump. Second, some "longtime aides and advisers" to President Biden are trying to come up with ways to persuade him that he should step aside.

• The Times notes: "The survey... is believed to be the first time since the debate that Mr. Biden’s aides have sought to measure how the vice president would fare at the top of the ticket."
• The report may be evidence that the Biden campaign, while outwardly committed to Biden's candidacy, are engaging in negotiations for a transfer of the nomination to Harris, should Biden's position become untenable.
• Maggie Haberman at NYT notes on the internal polling: "It could be read as the team gathering information to present a case to the president that his path forward is slim, or that it will be used to argue Biden is still the strongest standard-bearer for his party."
• Biden's senior campaign officials said in a memo to staff today: “The movement [in polling] we have seen, while real, is not a sea-change in the state of the race.”
• Reuters, likely reporting on the same memo, notes: "Biden campaign says it's internal data and public polling show the race remains within the margin of error in key battleground states," adding that, "its polling shows Biden's post-debate net favorability is 20 pct points higher than Trump's among undecided voters."