While President Joe Biden continues to poll near even with the field of potential Republican presidential candidates, some are wondering if adding a new running mate could better his chances of winning reelection.
Philip Lacovara, the former Deputy Solicitor General of the U.S. and former counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor, joined KNX In Depth’s Charles Feldman and Rob Archer to discuss a possibility he wrote about in a recent opinion piece.
Lacovara thinks President Biden moving on from Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 is his best option to re-appeal to voters and better his chances of winning a second term.
While it may sound crazy, Lacovara thinks that the right choice for Biden is former President Barack Obama.
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“Obama could replace Kamala Harris without losing a vital constituency that Biden would need for reelection,” Lacovara said. “He satisfies the number one problem that Biden faces, which is concerns, not only from Republicans and independents but even among many Democrats, that he’s maybe too old and too frail to be in term for another four years, which he may not be able to serve.”
Lacovara says the second problem the president is facing is that Harris is “widely unpopular.” He noted that polls show having her on the ticket only pushes away independent voters, something that will be needed for Biden to win reelection.
“For Biden to have the highest chance of getting reelected, he’s got to be willing to pick somebody on his team who will encourage his supporters and independents to turn out. I don’t think Kamala Harris is that person,” Lacovara said, adding that “she hasn’t lived up to the challenges of convincing the country that she’s ready to step into the first spot.”
Hypotheticals aside, many would question the legality surrounding Biden potentially picking Obama as his running mate.
However, Lacovara says that from his view, the U.S. Constitution does not prevent Obama from running for vice president, even though he’s already completed two terms in office.
“The 22nd Amendment, as your listeners may be aware, was passed to deal with the FDR problem when FDR continued running for president term after term after term,” Lacovara said. “So the 22nd Amendment was adopted to say that ‘No person should be elected more than twice as president.’ When you actually parse the terms of the Constitution, my analysis is that that does not prevent Obama from running to be vice president.”
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