Biden's ability to win back skeptical Democrats is being tested at a perilous moment for his campaign.
WASHINGTON, DC: Despite a week of campaigning, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to take on Republican Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has not eased the pressure to drop out of the 2024 race.
Biden has several important choices to make this weekend that could shape the direction of the country and his party as a revitalized Republican Party looks to return Trump to the White House after the November nominating convention.
Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, added his name to a list of about three dozen Democrats in Congress on Saturday who say it’s time for Biden to drop out of the race. The Californian urged Biden to “pass the torch” to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris, meanwhile, has gotten the endorsement of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told MSNBC on Saturday that the vice president is ready to “step up” and unite the party and stand up to Trump if Biden decides to step down. Warren said she knows that and “has a lot of hope right now.”
More lawmakers are expected to speak out in the coming days. Donors have expressed concerns. And a group calling on Biden to “pass the torch” planned a rally outside the White House on Saturday. Biden insists he is fully engaged.
“There’s no joy in admitting that he shouldn’t be our candidate in November,” said Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats. “But the stakes in this election are too high, and we can’t risk the campaign being focused on anything other than Donald Trump.”
With the Democratic National Convention just a month away, the standoff is becoming increasingly unbearable for the party and its leaders. The Democratic National Convention should be a moment of unity to nominate a sitting president to face Trump. Instead, the party finds itself at a crossroads it hasn’t seen in generations.
This stands in stark contrast to a Republican Party that has essentially embraced the former president’s far-right takeover of the party, despite years of bitter and chaotic infighting surrounding Trump, a federal criminal indictment pending for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election, and a criminal conviction in a bribery case against the former president.
At his beach home in Delaware, the 81-year-old Biden is isolating with COVID-19, but politically, he is isolating with a small group of family members and close advisers. White House physician Kevin O’Connor said Friday that the president still has a dry cough and hoarse voice, but his COVID symptoms have improved.
The president's team insisted it was ready to return to the campaign trail this week to counter the “dark vision” Trump had laid out.
“Together, as a party and as a nation, we can and will beat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “The stakes are high, the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”
But outside the Rehoboth area, the debate and emotions are running wild.
A donor call Friday, which drew about 300 people, was described as a waste of time by one participant who was granted anonymity. The person praised Harris for her five-minute speech, but the rest of the time was filled with others who ignored donor concerns, according to the participant.
Democrats are not only divided over what Biden should do, they also lack agreement on how to choose his successor.
Democrats who are demanding Biden’s resignation do not appear to have a unified plan for what happens next. Few lawmakers mentioned Harris in their statements, and some have said they would prefer an open nomination process that would allow them to throw their support behind a new candidate.
Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch have both argued that Biden should drop out of the race and have said they would prefer an open nomination process at the convention.
“Doing it publicly would give strength to whoever the final candidate is,” Welch told The Associated Press.
Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to pass Harris, the first Black woman and Southeast Asian American to become vice president, and unlikely to be done with a virtual nominating vote scheduled for early next month before the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago on Aug. 19.
Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum, who had called for Biden to step down, explicitly endorsed Harris as his successor.
“To provide a strong and viable path for Democrats to take the White House, I urge President Biden to release delegates and empower Vice President Harris to step up and run for the Democratic nomination for president,” McCollum said in a statement.
After last month's sloppy debate performance, it's unclear what the president could do to change his stance and win over lawmakers and Democratic voters who are wary of whether he can defeat Trump and win another term.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that nearly two-thirds of Democrats think Biden should drop out of the race and let his party nominate another candidate, significantly weakening his post-debate argument that “average Democrats” still support him despite some “celebrities” defecting from him.
At the same time, a majority of Democrats believe it would be a good thing for Kamala Harris to hold the top job, according to a separate poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Biden, who sent a challenging letter to congressional Democrats urging them to remain in the race, has yet to visit Congress to drum up support, an absence that has been noticed by senators and representatives.
The president held online conversations with members of various political parties last week, some of which ended disastrously.
In a call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Mike Levin of California told Biden he should step down. In another call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, when Rep. Jared Huffman of California asked Biden to consider meeting with top party leaders about a way forward, Biden became defensive.
Huffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called on Biden to resign on Friday.
At the same time, Biden still has a strong following. He received an endorsement from the Congressional Hispanic Coalition campaign arm on Friday, as well as support from leaders of the Congressional Black Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Coalition.
