Biden's ability to win back skeptical Democrats is being tested at a perilous moment in his campaign
WASHINGTON DC: Despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to take on Republican Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has not softened his bid to drop out of the 2024 race.
Biden faces serious options this weekend that could shape the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads to the November election with an energized GOP following the Republican convention for the nomination to send Trump back to the White House.
Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, on Saturday added his name to a list of nearly three dozen congressional Democrats who say it's time for Biden to leave the race. The Californian urged Biden to “pass the torch” to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris, meanwhile, has earned the support of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told MSNBC on Saturday that the vice president is “ready to step up” to unify the party and stand up to Trump if Biden decides to back down. Warren said he knew “I have a lot of hope now.”
More lawmakers are expected to speak in the coming days. Donors have expressed concern. And the organization urging Biden to “Pass the Torch” plans a rally outside the White House on Saturday. Biden insisted it was all in.
“There's no joy in the recognition that he shouldn't be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats pushing for Biden's exit from the race. “But the stakes of this election are too high, and we can't risk having anything other than Donald Trump be the focus of the campaign.”
The stalemate is increasingly untenable for the party and its leaders, a month away from the Democratic National Convention, which should be a unifying moment for the nomination of their incumbent president to oppose Trump. Instead, the party is at a crossroads not seen in generations.
It draws a stark contrast to Republicans, who after years of bitter and messy battles over Trump have essentially accepted the former president's far-right takeover of power in the GOP, despite his felony conviction in a money-laundering case and pending federal criminal charges for trying to sway the U.S. election. in 2020 before the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
From his beach house in Delaware, Biden (81) is isolating himself with the COVID infection, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House physician Kevin O'Connor said Friday that the president still has a dry cough and hoarseness, but that his COVID symptoms have improved.
The president's team insisted it was ready to return to the campaign trail this week to counter what it called the “dark vision” presented by Trump.
“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “The stakes are high and the choice is clear. We will win together.”
But outside the enclave of Rehoboth, the debate and passions are heating up.
Friday's donation call with about 300 people was called a waste of time by one participant, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. While that person praised Harris, who spoke for five minutes, the rest of the time was filled by others who brushed aside donors' concerns, according to the attendee.
Not only are Democrats divided on what Biden should do, they also lack consensus on choosing a successor.
So far, Democrats campaigning for Biden to leave appear to be united on a plan for what happens next. Very few lawmakers mentioned Harris in their statements, and some said they favored an open nomination process that would throw party support behind a new candidate.
Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont called on Biden to drop out of the race and said they would favor an open nomination process at the convention.
“If it was open, it would strengthen whoever is the final candidate,” Welch said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to bypass Harris, the nation's first female vice president who is black and Southeast Asian, and logistically unfeasible with a virtual nomination vote scheduled for early next month before the Democratic convention begins in Chicago on August 19.
Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, who called on Biden to step down, has explicitly endorsed Harris as a replacement.
“To give Democrats a strong and viable path to winning the White House, I urge President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice President Harris to become the Democratic nominee for president,” McCollum said in a statement.
It's unclear what else, if anything, the president could do to reverse course and win back lawmakers and Democratic voters who fear his ability to defeat Trump and serve another term after he stalled in a debate last month.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate another candidate, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, sharply undermining his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him, even if he is approached by some “big names”.
At the same time, a majority of Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top job, according to a separate poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Biden, who sent a defiant letter to congressional Democrats pledging to stay in the race, has yet to visit Capitol Hill to drum up support, an absence noted by senators and representatives.
The president held a round of virtual interviews with various committees last week — some of which ended badly.
Speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, one Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin of California, told Biden he should back off. During another with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Biden became defensive when Rep. Jared Huffman of California asked him to consider meeting with top party leaders about the way forward.
Huffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called on Biden to resign on Friday.
At the same time, Biden still has strong supporters. He received an endorsement Friday from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus campaign and has endorsements from leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
