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Inside the Hive host Brian Stelter takes the pulse of the Democratic Party with Vanity Fair contributing editors Chris Smith and Jennifer Palmieri. I think we have a great bench, says Palmieri, who served as communications director for Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign and the Obama White House, and is currently a cohost on Showtimes The Circus. While President Joe Bidens going to be the nominee for the Democrats in 2024, she says, the party has a bench of possible presidential candidates that are in waiting for 2028.

I have a theory that the Trump years made Democrats great, she continues. Just really good candidates, because there was so much on the line. I think both the caliber, quality of candidates, the issues that governors had to deal withso existential. I think that it just produced a whole generation of talent that might not have coalesced if there had not been so much on the line.

Still, they discuss possible scenarios if the 80-year-old Biden were to exit the race before Election Dayfrom a governor like J.B. Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or Gavin Newsom getting in the ring, to Vice President Kamala Harris moving to the top of the ticket. Theres no development in the presidents health thats making [Bidens people] more worried than not, says Smith. But theyre realists and, you know, they know the actuarial facts as well as the rest of us. So they are very much keeping their fingers crossed and wondering how this is going to play out.

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If Joe Biden Falters, Democrats Have Prepped the Bench - Vanity Fair