ANDREW NEIL: In a party obsessed with identity politics, Kamala Harris's ascent looks unstoppable. But in her own way, she could be just as big a liability as Biden

President Biden had spent a miserable weekend at his house in Rehoboth Beach in his home state of Delaware, 100 miles from the White House, self-isolating with Covid, coughing and hacking as the world passed him by.

Even Vice President Kamala Harris was on manoeuvres to replace him as the Democratic candidate in November's presidential election.

He headed to Delaware on Friday after cutting short campaigning in Las Vegas, where he'd tested positive. But his people were briefing strongly that he was still running for re-election and he even averred that he would resume campaigning later this week.

But by Sunday lunchtime he'd decided the game was up, announcing that, though he'd remain President until his term end in January, he would no longer seek re-election. Shortly afterwards he said he was backing Harris for the Democratic nomination.

He could hardly do otherwise. He'd picked Harris as his VP to show that, though he may be old and ailing, he'd chosen a younger woman who was fit to be President should he die in office. So how could he possibly not endorse her now?

Vice President Kamala Harris was on manoeuvres to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate in November's presidential election

Donald Trump never wanted Biden to step aside. He's always regarded him as the easiest to beat, writes Andrew Neil

Biden had stayed hunkered down over the weekend, invisible to the public, with only the handful of aides he still trusts and his self-serving wife, Jill, fuming at Harris's disloyalty, still not keen that he step aside for a younger candidate despite the overwhelming evidence that he was in no shape to fight a gruelling election campaign, never mind serve another four years in the Oval Office.

His wife was one of the last to concede he had to stand down. She liked being First Lady. His disgraced son, Hunter, facing jail time, had his own reasons for wanting to keep his father in office. He'd recently become part of Joe's inner circle and even flew from California to Las Vegas to stiffen his father's spine.

Biden's mood in his beach house, which Hunter called regularly over the weekend, swung between defiant and sullen, bitter and resentful, as longtime friends and allies abandoned him, sometimes publicly, more often behind closed doors where they were orchestrating his removal.

Almost 40 Democratic lawmakers in the House and Senate had already joined the 'Dump Biden' movement. He knew that dozens more agreed, even though they had yet to show their hands.

The President was especially angry with Barack Obama, whom he served as Vice President for eight years. Obama had said nothing publicly, but nobody in Washington DC was in any doubt he had joined the Dump Biden bandwagon.

A handwritten sign appeared on a lawn in Washington in support of Kamala

It is especially galling for Biden that his old boss and Democratic icon was in cahoots with Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker and one of the President's oldest and closest confidants.

It began to dawn on Biden, if not his wife or son, that with Democratic aristocracy like Obama and Pelosi against him, plus the powerbrokers on Capitol Hill, his days were numbered. Sunday morning brought two more ominous developments.

The independent Senator for West Virginia, Joe Manchin, only recently a Democrat and respected across party lines, took to one of the many US Sunday morning talk shows to say it was time for Biden to step down. Even for an isolated Biden, surrounded only by true believers, it was clear the dam was bursting.

Then came a new poll from the crucial Midwest swing state of Michigan, showing Donald Trump leading by seven points (49 per cent to 42 per cent).

The Detroit Free Press reported that 'Trump led in every region of the state, including in metro Detroit [a Democratic stronghold]'. Biden won Michigan by three points in 2020. The end of days for the Biden presidency was nigh.

Biden stepping back ends one dispute dividing the Democrats but could open another, perhaps equally divisive: should Harris, constitutionally Biden's heir apparent, inherit the Democratic nomination uncontested?

Or should there be an open convention when the Democratic National Committee meets in Chicago next month, a political beauty contest involving several hopefuls, of which Harris would be just one?

Harris has been a lacklustre, often embarrassing Vice President, who rambles in meaningless word salads, laughs annoyingly at the most inappropriate moments and has no achievements to speak of, writes Andrew Neil

President Biden had spent a miserable weekend at his house in Rehoboth Beach in his home state of Delaware, 100 miles from the White House, self-isolating with Covid

Biden's endorsement of his VP is designed to avert a bloodbath in the Windy City. He hopes it will dissuade presidential hopefuls such as governors Gavin Newsom (California), Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania) and Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan) from throwing their hats into the Democratic ring, turning Chicago into a coronation for Harris rather than a contest.

Even before Biden withdrew, Team Harris was already spreading the word that the crown is hers by rights, no contest. That it would be inconceivable for the Democrats — the Democrats! — to pass over a black woman who is already Vice President for a white man (or even a white woman).

As one prominent black Democratic activist put it indelicately but bluntly: 'How the f*** are you going to put all these white people ahead of Kamala?'

For a party in which identity politics has become the dominant political ideology, this argument will resonate. Leading black and Hispanic Democrats on Capitol Hill are already making it. The party's Left-wing culture warriors are echoing it.

American news networks, which lean overwhelmingly Democratic, were awash all weekend with Harris boosters even before Biden withdrew, many new to the cause, extolling her alleged virtues — and describing the calumny that would befall those who think otherwise.

This is likely to cause other contenders to think hard. Why risk the wrath of the party's core activists when Trump looks hard to beat anyway? The Clintons (Bill and Hillary) were also quick to endorse Harris. Her nomination looks unstoppable, at least as matters currently stand.

But it comes at a price. It means that the Democratic obsession with identity has trumped all other considerations — that the party's nomination should now fall to someone on the basis of gender and race rather than merit and ability. But then it was on the basis of gender and race that Biden chose Harris to be his running mate in the first place.

Team Harris insist that their woman, a generational change to break the gerontocracy that has dominated US politics for too long, will give Trump a run for his money in a way Biden couldn't.

Perhaps. But Harris has been a lacklustre, often embarrassing Vice President, who rambles in meaningless word salads, laughs annoyingly at the most inappropriate moments and has no achievements to speak of.

It was only a few months ago that Biden's people complained she was a drag on the ticket and mulled her removal (they concluded they couldn't). So take what they say now about her with a large bucket of salt.

The risk is that, in her own way, she will be just as big a liability as Biden when the campaign starts for real in early September. Yes, she polls better than Biden when ranged against Trump but not by much — and every credible Democratic alternative to Biden polls better than him. Some poll better than Harris. And that's before the Republicans unleash their arsenal of anti-Harris propaganda.

At the weekend the GOP gave us a taste of things to come — a devastating TV commercial dominated by 'Cackling Kamala' and focusing on her inability to do anything about one of the biggest issues in the election: the chaos on America's border with Mexico, across which ten million illegal immigrants have poured in recent years, an issue she was tasked by Biden to resolve.

When asked on TV why, at the time, she hadn't even visited the border she replied: 'I haven't been to Europe either.'

Trump never wanted Biden to step aside. He's always regarded him as the easiest to beat. He even called off the Republican dogs of war when they were planning to impeach him. He feared a fresh face from a younger generation. Bar one: Harris. He thinks she'll be even easier to beat than Biden.

The Democrats are happy Biden is gone. But they are nowhere near as happy as The Donald.