In a new book, FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes reveal the extensive planning by Kamala Harris’s campaign team to ensure her succession in case of a Biden exit from office.

Set for release on April 1st, the book outlines how Harris’s team had wargamed various scenarios, from Biden’s potential death to his decline in health, long before the public discussions of Biden’s aging and mental fitness became mainstream.

Team Harris, led by White House communications director Jamal Simmons, had prepared for the worst-case scenarios.

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In fact, as early as 2022, they strategized around the possibility that Joe Biden might die before his term finished.

One of the more striking revelations from FIGHT includes Simmons’s creation of a “death-pool roster” of federal judges, designed to swiftly swear in Harris should something happen to Biden.

While Simmons never directly informed Harris of this list, he advised colleagues to notify him immediately if something were to happen to the president.

The planning for Biden’s potential exit was not just focused on his death but also on scenarios where he might step aside or face challenges during the primaries.

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This level of preparedness points to an underlying concern within the Democratic Party regarding Biden’s ability to maintain his presidency through the 2024 election cycle.

While Team Harris focused on these contingencies, there was an unsettling reality visible to both insiders and the public: Biden’s health and mental decline were becoming more apparent.

According to the FIGHT excerpts, White House aides were leaving “colorful bread crumbs” to help Biden navigate the White House, such as guiding him with fluorescent tape on the floor to find the East Room. One aide even remarked that Biden “knows to look for that.”

Despite these growing concerns, the media and Democratic officials continued to insist that Biden was in peak mental and physical condition, a narrative that starkly contrasted with the behind-the-scenes planning happening within Harris’s team.

As the book reveals, discussions regarding Biden’s potential exit from the political scene were not confined to Harris’s team alone. Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials also began to hold secret talks in 2023 about contingency plans in the event of Biden’s withdrawal from the race or office.

These “hush-hush” discussions reflected the same concerns about Biden’s future and the need for a transition strategy.

NEW REPORT DISCLOSES THAT KAMALA STAFF PLANNED FOR BIDEN DEATH IN OFFICE STARTING IN 2023!

This has turned out to be one of the biggest political cover-ups of all time. pic.twitter.com/7ML7l5KYel

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 28, 2025

However, where Team Harris’s plans faltered was in their failure to account for a key factor: Harris herself.

While they meticulously planned for all potential Biden-related scenarios, the reality of Harris’s own political struggles was ignored.

The fact is that Harris, while making history as the first woman of color to serve as vice president, remained a deeply unpopular and unelectable figure within the Democratic Party.

This oversight became evident as Harris’s campaign failed to resonate with voters.

Despite all the planning for her potential ascension, Democrats found themselves stuck with a candidate whose ego-driven ambition could not overcome her lack of political appeal.

The failure to recognize Harris’s unpopularity and inability to connect with voters meant that the Democrats were left with an unviable candidate, unable to mobilize the electorate or present a compelling vision for the future.

As Stephen Kruiser and I discussed in our podcast, Five O’Clock Somewhere, the speculation about removing Harris from the ticket was always just that—speculation.

The only way for Harris to step down voluntarily was for her to choose to do so. Despite the extensive wargaming, Democrats ultimately failed to account for the reality that they had an unelectable candidate stuck in the vice presidency.

The Democrats had all their contingency plans in place, but they were blindsided by their own choice of a vice-presidential candidate who proved to be more of a liability than an asset to their ticket.

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