Van Jones says Democrats now planning on 'how' to replace Biden with Harris

Former Obama presidential adviser Van Jones says Democrats have moved on from discussions about potentially replacing President Biden at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket – to now actively plotting on how they can get him to step aside.

Jones says the party is now in "full-scale panic" behind the scenes as President Biden faces mounting pressure to abandon his re-election bid following his highly criticized debate performance against former President Trump last week. 

"I understand people want to defend him and protect him and give him the space and the dignity to make his own choice," Jones said on CNN Wednesday, referring to Biden.

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"But there is a big conversation happening right now about how this happens – not whether."

Jones claimed the circumstances are akin to former President Trump where his surrogates would vouch for him in public, but behind the scenes it would be different. 

"I just got to be honest, everybody comes on the air and says all this great stuff but behind the scenes, it’s full-scale panic," Jones said. "People are passing around legal memos, PDFs are flying back and forth on WhatsApp, trying to figure out, what are the options? How can you replace Biden? How do you get him to do it in a way where he feels respected, as he should be respected?"

Jones inferred that the party’s nominee would be Vice President Harris, with conversations now moving to who would be her running mate.

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"Who should Kamala Harris’s vice president be? The conversations on air and the conversations off-air are completely different," Jones said about the Biden situation. "We have a great candidate, we have a beautiful man, we have someone who loves this country. We have someone who has given his all – I mean, his all, to the last drop – for this country, but he may not be able to get across the finish line," Jones said. "And a mature party has to take that into account and that is what’s happening."

The news comes as President Biden is desperately trying to salvage his candidacy and secure the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention next month.

A new national poll indicates that former President Trump's lead over President Biden in their 2024 election rematch is widening in the wake of last week's heavily criticized debate performance by Biden.

According to The New York Times and Siena College poll, Trump now tops Biden 49%-43% among likely voters nationwide, which is a three-point swing toward the presumptive GOP presidential nominee from the previous New York Times/Siena College poll from just a week ago.

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Jones has not been afraid to air his views on President Biden since last week’s presidential debate.

"He had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base and he failed to do that, Jones, who seemed close to tears said immediately following the debate which was widely viewed as disastrous for the current commander-in-chief.

"And I think there‘s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now."

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.