Not a great nor necessary plan.
- If Biden resigns as president, yes Harris immediately becomes president. That means that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is only one heartbeat from the presidency until January 20.
There’s no way for Harris to appoint and get confirmed a replacement vice president, and it would be impossible anyway because replacing the vacant VP slot requires a majority of both the House and Senate.
- It doesn’t when work for becoming the new nominee. Becoming President due to a vacancy has exactly nothing to do with becoming the nominee for the election for president.
Becoming President in this case is by the Constitution. It’s the law, it’s how our government works.
Becoming the nominee is internal political party, legally private non-governmental business.
What does work, whether or not one wants Harris as the new nominee, is this:
Biden drops out as the Democratic nominee for President, while remaining in office as President saying he must put all his energy and attention into governing these remaining months.
Then,
IF the party wants Harris.
Harris aggressively campaigns to be President
ELSE
Harris states she has to put all her energy and attention into helping Biden govern so will not accept a nomination.
Open convention occurs, but likely with a lot of prior discussion and alignment towards one or two best candidate.
Face saving all around
No that is not what happens. I’m not arguing to keep him at the top of the ticket. Exactly the opposite: I’m arguing to drop him from the not yet official ticket, but for him to stay on as president until his term ends. That keeps Johnson still only second-in-line for the presidency, with Harris still first-in-line.
If Biden (referring to his governmental role as the current President) dies, Vice President Kamala Harris immediately becomes President.
Whereas referring to his nongovernmental role once (IF) he becomes the official nominee of the Democratic Party, nobody is automatically elevated to be the new nominee of the party. If it’s before the election, the executive board of the DNC determines the new nominee. Harris would very likely become the official nominee, but that’s not their only choice.
But Biden is not yet the official nominee no matter how many times he and his supporters say he is. He is only the presumptive nominee. So if he died, was incapacitated, or dropped out as a candidate for the nomination now, before the convention roll call, it becomes essentially an open convention and the nominee is chosen the way it used to be, by the convention. Which might take multiple roll calls, behind the scenes favors trading, and all sorts of “fun” drama.
In none of those cases is Speaker of the House Johnson elevated to anything.