Kamala Harris is already facing a major setback (Image: Getty)
Kamala Harris’s hopes of emerging from the wreckage of Joe Biden’s campaign as President could be derailed by a “huge divide” among party heavyweights about her nomination as candidate, a former British cabinet minister has claimed.
Mr Biden, 81, who was due to take on Donald Trump, sensationally announced he would not be seeking re-election despite have insisted for weeks he would not be standing down.
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Speaking on the podcast The Rest of Politics lasts night, hour after Mr Biden’s decision was made public, Rory Stewart, the former UK development minister and Tory Party leadership candidate, said: “Let’s take the story back one one step.
“I think the first thing is to understand what an amazing, momentous thing this is to get Joe Biden to step down at all.
“So obviously, the pressure has been building up. But he has been very, very resistant and in particular, a very tight circle around him, including people like Ron Klein, who've been with him on the Judiciary Committees since the early 1990s, holding out to try to keep him in place and finally that down a break and he agreed to step down."
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Despite having Mr Biden’s endorsement, Mr Stewart, appearing alongside Alistair Campbell, Anthony Scaramucci and Katty Kay, said the situation was far from simple for Vice-President Ms Harris.
READ MORE: Michelle Obama hailed 'only person who can beat Trump' after Biden quits race
With Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race, we went live with an emergency podcast with @RestIsPolitics.
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He explained: “Now we are facing a big choice, which is, is there a coronation of Kamala Harris or do we go to an open convention?
“An open convention is something the Democratic Party hasn't done for a long time. That basically means that the different delegates would be able to vote and they would be lobbied by the different candidates as opposed to it happening through a primary process."
He continued: “There is a huge divide it seems already within the Democratic Party on this.
“It seems that President Biden and the Clintons are trying very strongly to say it must be Kamala Harris. But the latest tweet from President Obama just came out a few minutes ago implies that he is more in favour of going to an open convention process which would allow many other people to come in and other people to compete.”
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Former US President Barack Obama has hinted that he may prefer an open convention (Image: Getty)
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The question the party faced was one of legitimacy, Mr Stewart suggested.
He added: “Firstly, what makes you a more legitimate candidate? Is it being crowned or is it coming in having beaten the other candidates in the race? What is it that shows in your polling, you're the person that's likely to win if you get selected?
“And finally, this question of the unity of the Democratic Party? Are you going to take the risk of dividing the party.”
Anthony Scaramucci, who was briefly Donald Trump’s director of communications and who is a regular commentator on US politics, said: “This will be somewhat controversial for people and I apologise, but there's identity politics at play in the Democratic Party.
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“And so they wanted, needed to pick an African American woman to be on the ticket, the first African American woman, the first woman vice president.
“And what's interesting is that the first African American president is not endorsing her. And so I think there's a little bit of a tug of war going on between identity politics and performance politics.
“Barack Obama is tipping his cards here. He's telling people he doesn't think the black woman can beat the very white or very orange Donald Trump. And so the cards have been tipped by Obama.”
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However Mr Scaramucci stressed: “I’ll make a few predictions here. I'll be bold to say that she gets that nomination. The Clintons have galvanised around her. They own a big piece of that party.
“And I think she is way more impressive and way more formidable than the right-wing media has portrayed her, chopping her up and making her look like she's laughing all the time and this sort of thing.
“Trust me, she's got a good record. And she's got a lot of energy and she's not going to be malapropping like Donald Trump or Joe Biden.”
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