Report: Biden set to leave DNC well before Obama, Harris take stage for major speeches

As the Democratic National Convention is set to kick off this week in Chicago, plans are in place for attendees to celebrate and pay tribute to President Joe Biden, who withdrew from his re-election bid last month amid pressure from party power players.

Despite the anticipated celebration of his service to the country, Biden is reportedly still stinging from what many describe as a coup to oust him from the top of the ticket and will remove himself from the proceedings in advance of planned speeches by former President Barack Obama and presidential nominee Kamala Harris, as the Daily Beast reports.

Pelosi's ruthless gambit

The political world experienced an earthquake last month when Biden announced that he would drop out of the race for another term in office, and recent reporting suggests that the decision was not willingly made but rather forced upon him by powerful Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Having decided that she needed to play hardball with Biden to get him to depart the stage, Pelosi reportedly made it clear that if he did not walk away from the campaign, she would take matters into her own hands and go public with damning information about his prospects of electoral success.

Pelosi allegedly told Biden that she was prepared to go public with her own doubts about his ability to beat Donald Trump in November and to present devastating polling data in support of that hypothesis.

Though Pelosi attempted to downplay her actions after Biden stepped down, the president himself explained in a recent CBS interview, “A number of my Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate thought I was going to hurt them in the races.”

“I was concerned if I stayed in the race, that would be the topic – you'd be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something]...and I thought it'd be a real distraction,” Biden added.

Bitterness remains

Though Pelosi has since expressed hope that the longstanding affection she and her family have had for the Bidens will carry them through this awkward moment, the president may not be so willing to forgive and forget what he has told insiders was the “ruthless” treatment he received from those he once considered key allies.

As Politico Playbook has reported, despite convention plans to laud Biden's years in office and express gratitude for his dedication to the party, the president “won't be sticking around for the rest of the week's festivities.”

As such, he will miss the much-anticipated speech from Obama, someone Biden believes failed to defend him when it mattered most and helped facilitate his forced departure from the campaign.

Biden is also poised to give Harris' speech a miss, something some believe could send a message that he does not truly support her ascension to the top of the ticket.

Though the White House has declined to conclusively reveal Biden's final plans for the week, any absence from key speeches will undoubtedly foster suspicions of lingering party disunity in the wake of unprecedented upheaval during the heat of a presidential election season.