Top Democrats threatened to forcibly remove Joe Biden from office unless he quits, setting him up to fail Trump debate: sources

The well-orchestrated “palace coup” to stop the faltering president seeking re-election has been in the works for weeks, but the dogged Biden fought him every step of the way, a source close to the Biden family told The Monday post

The inside information also made clear the anger, paranoia and frustration Biden displayed as the party's elite circled around him and piled on the pressure.

Part of the “crafted” strategy to get Biden out of the race, as he announced in an impact letter published on Sunday X, was allowing him to debate Republican nominee Donald Trump on live television in Atlanta last month.

During the 90-minute debate on the car crash, Biden appeared confused, slack-jawed and at one point froze, his shocking performance turning the tide against him.

“This debate was a setup to convince the Democrats that he couldn't run for president,” the source said Monday.

Amid calls for him to withdraw, Biden insisted he would continue, but party bigwigs threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution.

The amendment allows the vice president and cabinet members to declare him unfit to serve and force him to resign, the source added.

The White House and representatives of the Democratic National Committee did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment.

Although Biden immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, the source said Democratic delegates will be strongly encouraged to support Arizona Sen. and former astronaut Mark Kelly for the presidency at the convention Democratic National in Chicago in August.

Some holdovers have yet to endorse Harris as Biden's successor, despite less than a month until the convention and just four months until Election Day. The most prominent of them is former president Barack Obama.

“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the coming days,” Obama said on Sunday.

After the debate, first son Hunter Biden suddenly became more involved in his father's day-to-day business and insisted on attending all official and unofficial meetings, the source said.

“Hunter heard it [Joe Biden] he was assembling and he was very worried about his father,” the source said. “These people, these officials were not on Joe's side.”

Biden's own staff had no advance notice of the bombshell decision to withdraw from the race, which had been known since at least Tuesday, the source said.

Many were also surprised by the letter posted on Biden X's own account, as it was written on his private letterhead rather than on White House memo paper and was signed electronically, the source said.

“Everyone was totally shocked,” the source said. “It was pretty telling that Jill Biden tweeted a heart emoji and nothing else.”

Democratic Party insiders have also known for at least two years how Biden was on the decline, the source said.

“When I saw it a couple of years ago, it scared me,” the source said. “He was just repeating slogans and had no idea who I was.”

Originally published as Top Democrats threatened to forcibly remove Joe Biden from office unless he quits, setting him up to fail Trump debate: sources