Democratic leaders threatened to forcibly remove Biden if he didn't drop nomination: report

Joe Biden was reluctant to drop out of the election race, however, party leaders set a trap to force his withdrawal. According to sources close to the president, who spoke to the New York Post, there was even the possibility of him being forcibly removed.

According to the New York paper, Biden, who was reluctant to decline, faced a well-orchestrated, weeks-long move by top  Democratic operatives who considered him a liability. The New York Post source, in fact, claimed that the idea of the presidential debate against Trump was a set-up to make the Democratic president look vulnerable before voters and initiate internal pressures for him to abandon his candidacy.

"That debate was a set-up to convince Democrats that he couldn’t run for president," he told the New York Post.

The insider also told the newspaper that Biden appeared angry and frustrated when party leaders turned their backs on him as they surrounded him and pressured him to drop out of the race. Recently, various national media outlets reported that Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator Chuck Schumer and former President Barack Obama himself said privately that the president should drop out of the race so as not to hurt the Democratic Party.

According to the newspaper's source, Biden stood up and said he wanted to stay in the race, confident that he could reverse the situation and convince the public that he was still physically and mentally fit for office and the campaign.

However, Democratic Party bigwigs then threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows the vice president and cabinet members to declare the president unfit for office and force him to resign.

The source further confirmed reports from other national media outlets that reported that Biden's team was surprised by the resignation statement released Sunday afternoon.

In fact, according to the source, Biden's staff had no advance notice of the decision to withdraw from the race.

"Everyone was totally shocked," the source told the New York Post. "It was pretty telling that Jill Biden tweeted a heart emoji and nothing else."

Support for a senator to take down Harris

Likewise, the New York Post also reviewed that, while Biden endorsed Kamala Harris, there is a camp in the party that is trying to back Arizona senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly to challenge the vice president's candidacy. However, that hypothesis looks complex, especially since the Democratic National Committee is ready to appoint Harris as the official candidate before the national convention in a virtual meeting.

For now, moreover, Democrats have coalesced around Harris except for one prominent figure: former President Barack Obama, who said in a statement that Democratic leaders must create a credible process to choose the strongest candidate.