Senate Democrats called the necessity of developing a succession plan for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “ridiculous” and “crazy” on Tuesday, after a former chief party official floated the idea in light of the former secretary of state’s health woes.
Don Fowler, who served as national chairman for the Democratic National Committee under Bill Clinton, cautioned that there “should be a plan to identify a successor for Hillary Clinton, in case she were incapable of carrying on her campaign for the presidency” in an interview published by Politico on Monday. “You’d be a fool not to prepare,” he said.
Multiple Democrats on Capitol Hill disagree.
“That’s ridiculous,” Missouri senator Claire McCaskill told THE WEEKLY STANDARD of Fowler’s suggestion. McCaskill also discounted the precedent for planning ahead to replace an electorally toxic, medically compromised candidate. Democrats may have voted to swap out George McGovern’s 1972 vice-presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton for Sargent Shriver in case news that Eagleton received electroshock therapy for mental illness became public. (It did.) But the party should not make the same mistake now with Hillary Clinton, McCaskill told TWS.
“That was terribly unfair too,” she said. “He was receiving mental health treatment that many Americans do and carry on very productive lives. It was a terribly unfair thing that happened to Eagleton. Let’s don’t replicate that.”
For his part, Senator Jon Tester of Montana called any concern that the candidate’s health might pose a challenge to her fitness for office “craziness” and “trying to trump up something that’s not real.” Tester also called Fowler’s credibility into question.
“Look, I don’t know Don Fowler from a bar of soap,” he said. “But if Don Fowler said that, he’s not in touch with reality.”
Delaware senator Tom Carper and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin both dismissed the idea of planning to identify a successor in the unlikely event that Clinton could not carry on.
“I have no idea what [Fowler is] talking about,” Carper told TWS, with a cold chuckle.
Baldwin said, simply, “I don’t believe it’s necessary.”
Fowler’s concern, according to Politico, was that in the slim chance of a medical emergency requiring Clinton to step down, the mere lack of a plan to appoint a successor would throw the party into chaos. The sharpest divide within the Democratic party is between Obama loyalists, who would want Joe Biden to replace her, and progressives convinced the DNC did wrong by Bernie Sanders.
Devoid of any planning, therefore, the party infighting following a full-on Clinton collapse could pave the way for a Trump presidency (or, alternatively, a free-for-all power struggle allowing down-trodden Democrats to come out on top). In light of these high stakes, Fowler said, “Now is the time for all good political leaders to come to the aid of their party.” But Democrats in Congress may not fit Fowler’s definition of “good.”
