Three weeks after the faltering debate performance that rocked his candidacy, President Biden is facing the most concerted effort yet by leading Democrats seeking to force him out of the presidential race amid concerns over his advanced age and sluggish poll numbers.
The private but widely voiced doubts of the party’s top leaders — including former president Barack Obama, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) — have begun to spill out into public view as people familiar with their thinking have confirmed their growing sense of angst about Biden’s candidacy.
Obama, seen by many Democrats as the party’s most influential figure, has told allies that Biden should think seriously about the viability of his reelection bid, The Washington Post reported. Pelosi has conveyed a similarly blunt message directly to Biden and his aides in recent days, according to people familiar with the conversations, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Jeffries and Schumer, in separate private meetings with Biden last week, told him directly that his continued candidacy imperils the Democratic Party’s ability to control either chamber of Congress next year. The turmoil comes as polls suggest that Biden has slipped dangerously behind Republican nominee Donald Trump in swing states, Democratic donors signal they may start withholding support, and Republicans put on a contrasting display of unity at their convention this week.
Taken together, the wave of public doubt surrounding Biden suggests a new, more serious phase in his bid to save his candidacy. As he self-isolates at his Rehoboth Beach, Del., home after testing positive for the coronavirus, the president appears more politically embattled than ever.
But his team is showing no public signs of reconsidering his reelection bid.
At a campaign news conference in Milwaukee on Thursday morning, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, rebuffed the notion that the president might step aside. “I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t know how many times we can say this: President Biden is staying in this race,” Fulks said.
Biden personally is sending the same message. In an interview with BET that aired Wednesday, the president said he will remain in the race as long as he is healthy. Biden is 81, and Trump is 78.
“I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country, despite the fact that we were told we couldn’t get it done,” Biden said during the interview, which was taped Tuesday in Las Vegas. “But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that.”
Asked whether there was anything that could change his mind about running for another term, Biden said he would only reconsider if “some medical condition” emerged.
During a July 11 news conference, Biden had told reporters that he would only step aside if party leaders told him that he had no chance of winning. The visits from Jeffries and Schumer, coming shortly after the news conference, appeared designed to suggest a message in that vein, though it is not clear how explicit or detailed the leaders were.
Jeffries met with Biden on the night of July 11 at the White House and Schumer visited Biden two days later at his home in Rehoboth Beach. Each leader conveyed concerns that Biden’s continued candidacy would not only pave the way to another Trump presidency, but could also bring down Democrats’ chances to hold their narrow Senate majority and take back the House, The Post has previously reported.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden told Schumer and Jeffries in their private meetings that he would remain at the top of the ticket. “The President told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families,” Bates said in a statement.
Amid the rush of new reports about growing fissures, many Democratic leaders have not disputed the reports about their concerns or used their own voices to express support for Biden — a silence that often appears designed to send its own pointed message.
Against that backdrop, a round of new polls has been amplifying those doubts. Public and private surveys in recent days have indicated that Biden is losing ground against Trump in nearly every swing state, giving him a narrowing path to victory and raising the prospect of a GOP landslide.
Additionally, polls conducted after last month’s debate, in which Biden often stumbled and struggled to complete sentences, have found anywhere between 40 percent and 65 percent of Democrats saying the president should drop out of the race.
Biden has cited different national polls to defend himself against charges that he is losing, calling the race essentially a “toss up.” That defiance has created distress among some in his party, who worry that he is not being briefed on a full range of information about the state of his candidacy.
When Biden met privately with Pelosi and he pushed back on her message about his dire prospects, saying he was doing fine in the polls, Pelosi responded that she had her own polls showing the opposite. She suggested that Mike Donilon, one of Biden’s top advisers, join the conversation so that they could go line by line and compare their respective polls, according to one person familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
Pelosi’s office declined to discuss the content of their talk. “Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States,” a spokesperson for the former speaker said. “Sadly, the feeding frenzy from the press based on anonymous sources misrepresents any conversations the speaker may have had with the president.”
While at least 23 congressional Democrats have called for Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, many more are privately expressing concerns and hoping that Biden will step aside voluntarily, officials said. Some have resorted to calling first lady Jill Biden, according to a person familiar with the calls, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private entreaties.
On Wednesday, Semafor reported that Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood figure and campaign co-chair for Biden’s reelection, met with the president and told him major donors had grown anxious about his ability to win in November, a prospect that could harm his fundraising.
After a four-day lull in the public calls for him to exit the race as political leaders sought to avoid controversial statements in the aftermath of last weekend’s assassination attempt against Trump, Wednesday saw one of the highest-profile public defections from the president.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in California and a close Pelosi ally, called on Biden to leave the race for the good of the party.
“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said.
Hours later, the White House announced that Biden had tested positive for the coronavirus and was experiencing mild symptoms, including a cough, runny nose and “general malaise.” That had the effect of sidelining Biden just as he planned to ramp up his travel around the country to showcase his vigor and build a case against Trump. Next week alone, the president was planning to visit several states to make his case to the public.
Instead, Biden abruptly canceled events in Las Vegas on Wednesday and traveled back to Rehoboth Beach.
“I am doing well,” Biden told reporters after landing in Delaware on Air Force One late Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning, the White House called a “lid” for the day, suggesting that Biden will not be seen in public before Friday.
It is unclear when Biden may return to the campaign trail or how long his illness would sideline him. The president’s physician suggested Wednesday that his vital signs were normal, though he was congested and appeared to move more slowly than normal.
The drama surrounding Biden’s candidacy comes as the Republican National Convention has been taking place in Milwaukee, with allies of Trump coalescing around his candidacy and rejoicing over the disarray Democrats are experiencing.
Many Democrats fear that the party’s semi-paralyzed state, as its leaders hint broadly that its presidential candidate should withdraw while he refuses, is the worst possible position for the Democrats. Those fears are exacerbated by the view among many Democrats that Trump would be a uniquely destructive figure should he recapture the White House.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said the focus on disunity among Democrats over Biden was not reflective of the party’s broader shared objective of defeating Trump in November.
“I wish equal attention was being paid to the views of the many, many Senate Democrats who are completely supportive and actively helping the Biden-Harris ticket as the attention that’s being paid to those that are maybe questioning or worrying,” Padilla said Thursday during a news conference for the Biden campaign in Milwaukee. Campaign aides noted that several members of Congress joined Biden during his Las Vegas trip.
“President Biden has the committed delegates he needs to be the nominee. He is our nominee,” Padilla added. “And unless or until he suggests different, we’ve got work to do.”
Ashley Parker and Maeve Reston contributed to this report.
