With much of the nation's attention on the Republican convention, some may not be keeping up with the Democrat civil war between the establishment and Joe Biden. Earlier in the day, Biden's campaign launched a nuclear blast at Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama for attempting to lecture Biden on polling and his electoral standing. A campaign official told NBC's Mark Memoli that this triumvirate handed the 2016 election to Donald Trump by convincing Biden to step aside, and that their pressure campaign wouldn't work this time around.

The White House got into the act later, and perhaps a bit more diplomatically, in response to rumors that Biden had decided to withdraw. Biden spokesman T.J. Ducklo issued a flat-out denial:

Another Biden aide informed @BrookeSingman that: “The President is more committed than ever to winning this election.”

— Patrick Webb (@RealPatrickWebb) July 18, 2024

This came in response to claims on a podcast by Mark Halperin that Biden had already submitted notice of withdrawal. Supposedly, Biden would call for an open convention rather than endorse his running mate and incumbent VP:

Newsmax's Mark Halperin reported Thursday afternoon that President Biden will drop out of the 2024 presidential race, will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, and instead call for an open convention in Chicago. Halperin told 'FRONTLINE' host Carl Higbie that advisers around Harris are fine with this because she will be seen as independent of the president.

"They do not want what some of my sources have been calling a Kamala coronation, that the problem, in part, that they found themselves in was that President Biden was not seriously challenged for the nomination," Halperin reported. "At least one of her allies said to me, this is better, better to not be anointed by Joe Biden, better to show independence, better to show with a strong ticket, the capacity to win the nomination on her own."

Does this sound likely? Possible, perhaps, but not likely. I don't doubt that Halperin's sources told him this, but it sounds like the same kind of whispering campaign that finally produced the volcanic eruption by Team Biden late this afternoon. This feels a lot like wishcasting at best, and part of the same media-platformed pressure campaign by the Democrat establishment that hasn't borne any fruit. Yet, anyway.

Plus, Axios reported late today that the DNC has restarted planning for their virtual vote to nominate Biden, just a couple of days after Schumer pressured them to suspend it:

The Democratic National Committee is scrambling to finalize and execute a plan to compress its "virtual roll call" into the first few days of August, according to people familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: Despite growing backlash from Democrats worried about officially nominating President Biden weeks before the convention, top DNC officials are moving forward to codify him as the party's nominee by Aug. 7.

Does that sound as though they're hearing about a Biden withdrawal? Not to Democrats:

Between the lines: Delegates remained concerned that the virtual voting process is really just a way to ensure that Biden is the party's nominee, and to quash the internal rebellion pushing him to step aside.

That's exactly what it is. That makes the rumors of the death of the Joe Biden campaign and nomination look ... greatly exaggerated. For now, anyway. 

Update: I missed this reaction from the White House's deputy comms director Andrew Bates earlier, but here it is, via Twitchy:

This fan fiction is wrong https://t.co/czcwH6qUpd

— Andrew Bates (@AndrewBatesNC) July 18, 2024