President Joe Biden is facing the stark reality that many Democrats at the highest levels want him to consider how stepping aside from the 2024 election to make way for a new nominee atop the ticket could be the party’s best chance of preventing widespread losses in November.
Isolated as he battles a COVID infection at his beach house in Delaware, Biden’s already small circle of confidants before his June 27 debate fumbling has downsized further. The president, who has insisted he can beat Republican Donald Trump, is with family and relying on a few longtime aides as he weighs whether to bow to the mounting pressure to drop out.
The Biden for President campaign is calling an all-staff meeting Friday. At the same time, the Democratic National Committee’s rule-making arm is also meeting, pressing ahead with plans for a virtual roll call before Aug. 7 to nominate the presidential pick, ahead of the party’s convention later that month.
Campaign officials said Biden was even more committed to staying in the race, even as the calls for him to go mounted. And senior West Wing aides have had no internal discussions or conversations with the president about dropping out.
In a statement levelling specific criticisms of Trump’s speech Thursday night in accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Biden gave no hint of changing his mind, saying he was looking forward to “getting back on the campaign trail next week.”
Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chair of the Biden-Harris campaign, told MSNBC on Friday morning that the president is the best person to take on Trump and that while recent weeks have been bumpy and have resulted in “slippage” in the polls, the campaign sees a “path forward” to victory on Nov. 5.
As a growing number of Democrats call for Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 U.S. presidential race ahead of the Democratic National Convention, About That producer Lauren Bird breaks down the options to replace him on the ballot and what makes some of them especially challenging.
It’s a pivotal few days for the president and his party: Trump capped an enthusiastic Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, but several Democratic lawmakers think the three-time nominee is beatable, with many legislators panning his Thursday night speech as short on specifics and full of misrepresentations of his record as president between 2017 and 2021.
But Democrats, racing against time, are considering the extraordinary possibility of Biden, 82 in November, stepping aside for a new presidential nominee before their own convention. The internal tumult began after a disastrous showing in an unprecedented June presidential debate — by all accounts wanted by the Biden campaign to re-engage Americans as to Trump’s faults — as well as follow-up interviews the president has conducted that have failed to allay concerns.
“President Biden deserves the respect to have important family conversations with members of the caucus and colleagues in the House and Senate and Democratic leadership and not be battling leaks and press statements,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Biden’s closest friend in Congress and his campaign co-chair, told The Associated Press.
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, the first of three Senate Democrats to publicly say Biden should exit the race, called the current state of party angst “not sustainable.” In the past 24 hours, Jon Tester of Montana and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico joined Welch.
Several House members also did so early Friday, with Zoe Lofgren of California among the most senior members of the chamber to do so since the debate. The total number of Democratic lawmakers in Congress publicly calling for the president to step aside is over two dozen, though the number publicly supporting him to run is greater.
Republicans says they’re ready if there’s a change
Democrats at the highest levels have been making a critical push for Biden to rethink his election bid, with former president Barack Obama expressing concerns to allies and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi privately telling Biden the party could lose the ability to seize control of the House if he doesn’t step away from the 2024 race.
Influential congressional figures including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries are sending signals of strong concern.
Some Democratic lawmakers in Congress have begun having private conversations about lining up behind Vice-President Kamala Harris as an alternative.
Trump’s co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said in interviews with U.S. media outlets that Harris attack ads are ready if necessary.
But Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, acknowledging that Trump is 78, told CNN that the Democrats would clearly be energized if they selected a younger candidate. Harris turns 60 in October.
Biden has been told the campaign is having trouble raising money, and key Democrats see an opportunity as he is away from the campaign for a few days to encourage his exit. Among his Cabinet, some are resigned to the likelihood of him losing in November.
The president himself, in a radio interview taped just before he tested positive, dismissed the idea it was too late for him to recover politically, telling Univision’s Luis Sandoval that many people don’t focus on the November election until September.
Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination in a long, rambling and highly personal speech Thursday that recounted the recent attempt on his life before moving into rhetorical attacks on Joe Biden, China, current U.S. trade policy, America’s role in the war in Ukraine and a string of other issues he pledged to fix if elected.
Among Democrats nationwide, nearly two-thirds say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. That sharply undercuts Biden’s post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him.
The reporting in this story is based in part on information from almost a dozen people who insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive private deliberations with the Associated Press. The Washington Post first reported on Obama’s involvement.