As the Democratic National Committee winter meeting goes into its second day Friday, a big mobile billboard with an urgent message to President Biden and the DNC — “Don’t Manipulate 2024 Primaries” — will continue to circle the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown hotel where the meeting is taking place when President Biden arrives to give a speech.

“There’s been a mixture of responses to the billboard from DNC members,” said Sam Rosenthal, political director of RootsAction.org, the activist organization sponsoring the Don’t Run Joe campaign. “Likewise, as we continue to offer Don’t Run Joe literature to them, the responses have varied widely. These are urgent matters that will greatly affect the future of the party and the country. Avoiding or suppressing genuine debate is a foolish path in the long run.”

Rosenthal added: “I’ve spoken with some DNC members here in Philadelphia who express private sympathy with the Don’t Run Joe effort. But they’re too intimidated to say so publicly.”

Biden’s maneuver to reorder the presidential primaries to his personal political benefit should be rejected by the DNC, the Don’t Run Joe campaign says, adding: “Joe Biden should climb down from attempting to manipulate the Democratic primary schedule for his own narrow political purposes. As we pointed out when announcing the Don’t Run Joe campaign, ‘A president is not his party’s king, and he has no automatic right to renomination.'”

Don’t Run Joe contends that “in 2024 the United States will face the dual imperatives of preventing a Republican takeover of the White House and advancing a truly progressive agenda. The stakes could not be higher. The threat of a neofascist GOP has become all too obvious. Bold and inspiring leadership from the Oval Office will be essential. Unfortunately, President Biden has been neither bold nor inspiring. And his prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak. With so much at stake, making him the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in 2024 would be a tragic mistake.”

RootsAction co-founder Jeff Cohen urged DNC members to “get their heads out of the sand and resist pressure to make happy talk about a president who is in a weak position to run for re-election.”

For further information, contact:
– At DNC in Philadelphia — Sam Rosenthal, RootsAction political director, sam [at] rootsaction.org
– Jeff Cohen, RootsAction co-founder, jeff [at] rootsaction.org
– Norman Solomon, RootsAction national director, norman [at] rootsaction.org

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