DNC to nominate Joe Biden for president in ‘virtual roll call’ ahead of in-person convention

Meeting on Friday, the Rules Committee did not take votes on the matter, determining that the virtual nomination should go ahead. It will begin on August 1 and end by the 7th, per ABC. The acceptance speeches from Joe Biden and his VP Kamala Harris are still slated to take place in person on the convention floor. However, a virtual roll call means that delegates will not have the opportunity to stand up, speak their minds, and be heard by the entire Democrat Party.

There had been rumors that Joe Biden may step aside and allow another candidate to run for president ever since his miserable debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27. Since then, a growing number of members of his own party have said that they do not feel he can lead them either to a November win or for the next four years. One floated plan was to have an open convention where delegates could nominate candidates who were not Joe Biden.

Rumors swirled in the press about Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, and of course Vice President Kamala Harris. A virtual roll call eliminates that possibility as the delegates would be walking into the convention having already done the job they came to Chicago to do, that of nominating the Democrat Party's candidate for president.

DNC Chair Jamie Harrison said the virtual roll call had already been in the works as far back as May. "No part of this process is rushed," he said. "The timeline for the virtual roll call process remains on schedule and unchanged from when the DNC made that decision back in May, and voted to ratify in mid-June. The reason given was that Ohio is unable to put Biden on the ballot until such time as he is nominated, and the in-person nomination would take place too late for Ohio's certification deadline. However, Ohio had passes a law extending their deadline to ensure that Biden would be qualified. That wasn't good enough for the DNC, who said the Ohio GOP was out of control.

"The issue is resolved in Ohio," said Republican Secretary of State for Ohio Frank LaRose, "and Democrat proxies know that and should stop trying to scapegoat Ohio for their own party's disfunction. Remember, they only ran into an issue with the deadline in the first place by scheduling their convention after the well-established deadline under Ohio law. Now that their candidate is clearly floundering, they blame Republicans."

"Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, will be reelected because of you. Because of you, we can look forward to nominating our president through a virtual roll call and celebrating with fanfare together in Chicago alongside all of our delegates who are supporting the Biden Harris ticket," Harrison told delegates.

He also said "We will not let extremism in Ohio corrupt the democratic process. This election comes down to nothing less than saving our democracy from a man who has said that he wants to be a dictator on day one. So we certainly aren't going to tempt fate by inviting challenges to policing the Democratic ticket on the ballot throughout this country."

This Friday reveal comes as the Republican National Convention comes to a close. On Monday of the RNC in Milwaukee, delegates from each state stood up in person and nominated Donald Trump to be the Republican presidential candidate. The Democrats consistently say they have to win in November in order to save democracy, yet this virtual roll call is a move away from democracy, and not towards it.