 of him doing what he was told, that he could still take the role, and now when they wanted him to do something he didn't want to do, i.e. prepare for an exit, they figured they would go ahead and take him on down. Now they can't just take him out immediately, unless he were to somehow, quote-unquote, have a massive heart attack or something or die on the spot. So they wanted to set the stage, not to the Republicans, the Republicans already do this, but to the Democratic base.