Delegates to the Democratic National Convention rules committee approved the virtual roll call on Wednesday, moving ahead with a July 30 deadline for candidates seeking to collect delegate signatures to appear on the virtual roll call. The virtual roll call, which must be completed by Aug. 7 to comply with Ohio ballot access deadlines, could start as early as next Thursday.

The compressed timeline — nominating Harris less than two weeks after President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race — nearly guarantees the vice president’s path to the nomination, given the wide swath of support she’s picked up from Democrats across the country since declaring her candidacy on Sunday. She also benefits from the DNC pushing ahead on a virtual roll call that would conclude by Aug. 7, which the committee has defended as necessary to avoid potential legal challenges by Republicans in Ohio.

According to the adopted rules, candidates must declare their intent to run with the DNC by Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern time. After they’ve filed the requisite forms, they must collect at least 300 delegate signatures, no more than 50 of whom can come from the same state, by Tuesday.

The DNC is also still advising that it’s important for “both nominees” for president and vice president to appear on the virtual roll call, which could push Harris to announce her running mate by the middle of next week.

ANN ARBOR, MI — First lady Jill Biden has canceled tentative plans to campaign in Ann Arbor on Sunday, July 21, the Washington Post reported.

The news comes amid speculation about whether Joe Biden will remain in the presidential race following a recent debate against Donald Trump and after he tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday and returned to his Delaware vacation home.

The first lady is with the president as a growing number of Democrats are calling on him to end his reelection bid, the Post reported, noting Ann Arbor is a Democratic stronghold in Michigan, a must-win swing state. However, Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Friday the president is “absolutely” staying in the race and is the best person to defeat Trump.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), national co-chair of President Biden’s reelection campaign, said Friday that Biden is “weighing” who would be the best Democratic nominee to defeat former President Trump in November, indicating Biden is carefully evaluating the option of stepping aside for another candidate.

But Coons also emphasized he thinks Biden would be the strongest choice to challenge Trump in the general election, and he later posted a statement on social media declaring Biden is “in it to win it.”

“This is an internal party matter and a matter of the campaign that is playing out very publicly. I think our president is weighing what he should weigh, which is: Who is the best candidate to win in November and to carry forward the Democratic Party’s values and priorities in this campaign?” Coons said at the Aspen Security Forum.

He made his remarks after a panel moderator what factors Biden is considering as he decides how to proceed with his campaign amidst calls by Democratic lawmakers to drop out of the race.

Seven Democratic Massachusetts state senators called on President Joe Biden Thursday night to stand down as the party nominee, saying “it is time for him to pass the torch,” in a joint statement.

“We are calling for President Biden to step aside so that a different candidate can be nominated at the Democratic convention in August,” the state lawmakers said.

Democratic State Sens. Jo Comerford, Paul Feeney, Pat Jehlen, John Keenan, Jason Lewis, Michael Moore and Jamie Eldridge at the start of the joint statement hailed Biden’s “lifetime of public service to our nation,” but argued later in the release that recent polls show “competitive races in blue states like Virginia and Minnesota” between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The state senators also pointed to increasing worries from Democratic federal lawmakers over Biden’s chances against Trump, and the impact of losing the Oval Office for the party.

The Biden For President campaign is calling an all-staff meeting for Friday. It’s heading into a critical weekend for the party as Republican Donald Trump wraps up a heady Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and Democrats, racing time, consider the extraordinary possibility of Biden stepping aside for a new presidential nominee before their own convention next month in Chicago.

FOLLOWING THE JULY 13 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION of Donald Trump, his supporters—and many anti-anti-Trump commentators—have been wringing their hands about the supposed rhetorical extremism of Democrats and other Trump foes. It’s all a bit rich, though, given that violent, fearmongering, and dehumanizing rhetoric has been Trump’s stock in trade over the past decade. This is, after all, the man who started his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015 by claiming that the vast majority of immigrants from Mexico, including legal ones, are “bringing drugs [and] crime” or “are rapists”—and who recently accused Joe Biden of “running a Gestapo administration.”

At a moment when so many people on the right are smearing any impolite Trump critic as complicit in the assassination attempt, revisiting Trump’s long history of flirtation with verbal violence is in order—if only to keep the record straight.

So, bearing in mind that nothing Trump has said or done excuses or mitigates the horrific acts of his would-be assassin, here’s a list of instances of Trump normalizing, endorsing, promoting, or winking at political and other violence.

It’s improbable that Democrats could push Biden out without his consent — convention delegates are picked because of their loyalty to their candidate, and Biden won the right to help select virtually every pledged delegate to the convention.

However, Democratic Party rules do outline what would happen if Biden steps aside before he’s formally nominated (which is scheduled to happen in a virtual roll call before the convention), or if there’s a vacancy on the national ticket after Biden officially secures the nomination.

Note that if this unprecedented situation were to happen, it’s possible the party could vote to change any of the rules around candidate replacement. And if it comes to pass after the convention, it’s possible state laws could complicate efforts to replace Biden on specific ballots.

See what could happen if Biden were to end his candidacy:

An overwhelming majority of Democrats say they approve of Vice President Harris replacing President Biden atop the ticket if he decides to step aside, according to a new poll.

The new Economist/YouGov survey, released Thursday, found 79 percent of Democrats would support Harris at the party’s nominee in November if Biden chose to withdraw from the race. Their response comes as a growing number of Democrats call for the incumbent to step aside in the wake of a poor debate performance against former President Trump last month.

Roughly 28 percent of Democrats said Harris was more likely than Biden to win against Trump. About 32 percent said the vice president was just as likely and 24 percent said she was less likely to defeat the former president in the fall.

More than half — or 51 percent — of Americans believe Biden should definitely or probably step aside and allow another Democrat to run. Just under 45 percent of respondents said the same, while 41 percent said he should not, per the poll.