Last night the nation witnessed the Joe Biden that at least half of the country knew existed. Joe Biden has always been prone to gaffes, and we know he’s never been the brightest bulb on the tree. Despite his many debunked claims, he did not finish first in his class in law school. Record suggest he finished somewhere near the bottom, in fact.

But throughout his life he has always had a “drinking buddy” type aura about him that made him personable and well liked amongst his Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle. When his cognitive abilities started to decline right around the time he started running for president in 2019, there were many cover-up stories between his own campaign and the media to explain his behavior.

First of all, we have to immediately debunk this claim that Joe Biden has a stutter, or any kind of speech impediment. The fact that they would insult the millions of children and adults who suffer from speech impediments in this country by co-opting a condition that he definitely does not have at their expense is absolutely shameful and cruel. Joe Biden has been in public life for half a century, there are literally hundreds or thousands of hours of recorded public speeches and comments made by him going back to the 1970s. At no time prior to 2019 did he ever exhibit any kind of stutter, impediment, slur or any other type of speech pattern problem that anybody can legitimately cite. It was made up out of thin air just like after last night’s debate his campaign made up a story about him having a cold.

The media has covered up Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which is obvious to anybody who watches him on a daily basis, for the last four years. We know that in certain big events, like this year’s State of the Union address, Biden receives an intravenous cocktail with ingredients that contain energy boosting vitamins, along with a drug known as Provigil, which is used by people who have trouble staying awake and alert during the day.

It was obvious that they overdosed him after watching the angry, screaming and ranting screed that he delivered that night from the House chamber. Of course, his supporters hailed it as vindication about his cognitive health and claim that he was healthy and fit. But shortly after the speech, he was wandering around the House floor talking to Congressional democrats, and you could see the effects of the drugs wearing off when he was caught on a hot mic slurring and speaking unintelligibly, at which point an aide grabbed him by the arm and quickly ushered him out of the chamber.

The June 27th debate was a completely different show. Biden took over a week off in isolation to prepare for his first face-off with Trump in four years. Right from the jump Biden appeared confused, frozen, and often times completely stopped in mid sentence to stare down at his podium and simply check out. In one of the most bizarre moments of the night, following one of his long pauses Biden seemed to snap back on, like he suddenly woke up from a vivid dream, and shouted “We finally beat Medicare!”

Trump, trying not to laugh and also feeling as incredulous as everybody watching the debate, quipped back, “Yeah, you beat it to death!” This was the one time that CNN’s Jake Tapper appeared to jump in and save Biden, but the damage was done. “We finally beat Medicare” will likely become the new “Let’s go Brandon” at Trump’s massive rallies from now until November.

As much as Republicans savored watching a real time display of what they already knew about Joe Biden’s condition, they were probably shocked to see the normally compliant media, who bends over backwards to cover for Biden’s cognitive decline and willingly spread false propaganda for the Biden White House, swarm like vultures to pick at Biden’s noticeably dead body. Even the hard left networks like CNN and MSNBC were immediately sounding the alarm and finally saying the quiet part out loud, that replacing Biden as the Democrat nominee has to now be seriously considered.

But don’t be fooled, this is a contingency plan that has been in the works for months. The other problem the Democrats have is that they now have to worry about down ballot races in swing states. There are several states where Trump leads Biden, but statewide Democrat candidates are out-polling their Republican opponents. Biden’s performance was so bad that it’s likely to depress his voter turnout, which could kill the party’s down-ballot hopefuls.

I have said for months that I did not believe Joe Biden would ultimately be the Democrat nominee. Even though he didn’t have any serious challengers from within his own party, I know for a fact that a small group of democrat operatives have been running a shadow war room dedicated to replacing Biden seamlessly should they get the call. I know that people told me that I was crazy, or that it’s a conspiracy theory or blah blah blah…but these same people told me after the 2022 midterms that Trump wouldn’t run, couldn’t beat DeSantis in the primary, and couldn’t win a general election. We all see how the first two predictions turned out, and now after last night’s annihilation of Biden on live TV, the third prediction seems like it’s going down like a Japanese Zero as well.

So how can the Democrats change horses this late in the game? Easily, per their party rules.

Republicans seat delegates by state based on primary results, as do the Democrats…but the Democrats have a safety net in place should the party leaders ever lose control of their own process.

It’s called the “Super-delegates.”

The Super-delegates are elected officials and party insiders who are appointed, not elected by the party leadership. In theory, if enough Super-delegates get together and decide to vote for a nominee that didn’t win the state delegate race, they could move the nomination. When Barack Obama had edged Hillary Clinton in the state-by-state primaries in 2008, there was an active effort by the Hillary campaign to convince super delegates to vote for her at the convention. Their argument was that it was “her turn”…it didn’t work.

So who would replace Biden?

Well, it’s not going to be Michelle Obama so let’s just get that out of the way early. The former First Lady has never particularly enjoyed politics, and lives such a comfortable life largely free from scrutiny and stress that I certainly can’t blame her for shutting down this as even something she’d consider.

Then there’s Gavin Newsom, the socialist Governor of California. A state that is bankrupt and losing residents by the millions to states like Texas and Florida, with lower taxes, lower crime, and more basic freedoms than the “People’s Republic of California.” Newsom will run for President one day, but he’s not dumb enough to take on Trump. Newsom is a prototypical effeminate beta male with a history of disastrous results for every job that he’s ever had. Newsom would have to run against an establishment Republican candidate, and Trump is the opposite of establishment. Trump is also an imposing, alpha male figure that would make Gavin Newsom look like a little boy wearing his dad’s suit.

While a few other names have been tossed around in the last 24 hours since the live funeral of Joe Biden, the only plausible option the Democrats really have is VP Kamala Harris. Even though she polls worse than Biden against Trump and has a tendency to gaffe just as hard without the excuse of being senile, she’s the only vetted, known entity that the party could spin up fast enough to even make a real run on a short runway.

The smartest thing the Democrats could do is convince Joe Biden to resign so that Harris elevates to the presidency prior to becoming their standard bearer. The pomp and pageantry of the first female president, and the first female of color president would drown out the news cycle for at least a couple of weeks. The media would fawn all over her and equally praise the Biden legacy as unselfishly stepping aside for the good of country and party.

I’m not saying Harris could actually beat Trump, but it would restart the conversation and the clock immediately if the Democrats chose to go this route. Just replacing Biden with Harris from the VP slot isn’t good enough, they have to make a splash. Right now the party is completely drowning, so a splash may be the only chance they have to prevent utter annihilation at the polls in November.

Brian Trascher is a New Orleans-based political consultant.