Biden is “absolutely” staying in the race, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” calling him the “best person to take on Donald Trump” and suggesting that the growing angst among top Democrats about Biden’s candidacy does not reflect the broader sentiment across the party.
Less than two hours after O’Malley Dillon’s appearance, four more House Democrats released a joint statement calling on Biden to “pass the torch,” the broadest collective effort from Congress thus far — and a move some officials said was representative of a larger, growing groundswell against Biden among lawmakers that could erupt into view if Biden does not step aside over the weekend.
“We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign,” Reps. Jared Huffman (Calif.), Marc Veasey (Tex.), Jesús “Chuy” García (Ill.) and Mark Pocan (Wis.) told Biden in the statement.
Not long after, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-Nev.) became the third Democratic senator to publicly call for Biden to step aside, highlighting an unmistakably ramped-up push in Congress to oust the president from the ticket. The number of congressional Democrats urging the president to bow out has now risen past 30, about 12 percent of all Democrats in Congress.
The increasingly intense impasse between supporters and skeptics of the president suggests there is no end in sight to the Democratic infighting that has surrounded Biden’s candidacy as both sides have grown more obstinate, and more willing to allow the standoff to play out in public.
It is clear they see this moment very differently. Some people close to Biden are urging Democrats to give him the time and space to end his candidacy on his own, to end his half-century of political life with grace. Other Democrats say they have spent weeks giving the president every opportunity to leave with dignity on his own terms, only to see them all rebuffed.
Yet others are fully backing the president’s continued candidacy. O’Malley Dillon has told campaign aides privately that recent reports that Biden is considering imminently dropping out of the race are far removed from reality, according to a person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Top White House adviser Anita Dunn has echoed that sentiment, giving some campaign aides confidence that Biden remains committed to being the Democratic nominee even as he appears to be losing the confidence of significant portions of his party.
Yet the pressure to push Biden aside was only intensifying Friday ahead of what some officials described as a crucial weekend, given that the Democratic National Convention is a month away — and the party is planning a virtual nominating process sooner to lock in the nominee.
That has fostered a “now or never” mood on Capitol Hill, with multiple lawmakers discussing a public effort to oust Biden from the race. A new Political Action Committee called “Pass the Torch” announced Friday that it was launching ads in Washington and Rehoboth Beach, Del., urging Biden to end his reelection bid. A group of Democratic delegates gathered via Zoom on Friday to discuss how an open convention would work.
All the while, Biden remained behind closed doors at his home in Rehoboth Beach, where he is self-isolating after testing positive for the coronavirus and experiencing mild symptoms earlier this week. In a statement Friday, Biden said he planned to return to the campaign trail next week.
“The stakes are high, and the choice is clear,” Biden said in the statement, a response to Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday. “Together, we will win.”
The makeup of the four lawmakers behind Friday’s joint statement is significant, since they are all member of larger groups that have expressed support for Biden. Pocan is the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has largely stuck with Biden. Garcia is a member of the Hispanic Caucus, whose leadership endorsed Biden last week. Veasey is a member of the Black Caucus, whose leadership has also stood with the president.
“Passing the torch would fundamentally change the trajectory of the campaign,” they wrote.
Both Huffman and Veasey directly raised concerns to the president about his ability to win during separate calls that lawmakers held with Biden last weekend.
Heinrich, the New Mexico senator, suggested Biden could not win against Trump. “The return of Donald Trump to the White House poses an existential danger to our democracy,” he said. “We must defeat him in November, and we need a candidate who can do that.”
Heinrich is running for reelection in New Mexico, a state that Biden won by 11 points in 2020, but aides say the presidential race is tied in the state.
More lawmakers are expected to follow suit in coming days, as polls appear to be solidifying with Biden trailing Trump in important battleground states. That would create the spectacle of a party torn apart and publicly at war with its leader, but a growing number of Democrats are concluding there could be little alternative.
“There’s been a gradual shift — it may be accelerating somewhat — with a few more obviously, speaking publicly, and a good number privately,” said one senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations with colleagues and the White House. “I think also the mood in the White House or the campaign also seems to be shifting somewhat, so I think the two trends are complimentary.”
But Biden’s team is showing no sign of shifting.
On Friday, Biden campaign aides pointed to support the president had received from key figures including liberal lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). During a lengthy Instagram Live session Thursday night, Ocasio-Cortez told supporters that ousting Biden would lead to chaos and harm the party’s chances of defeating Trump. Sanders, speaking on “Morning Joe” offered a full-throated endorsement of Biden, saying the president could help Democrats win “in a big way.”
Campaign officials said they were planning multiple press events and volunteer events in the coming days, aiming to showcase that Biden’s candidacy was forging ahead.
The campaign also touted Friday’s endorsement of Biden by BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The group said in a statement that Biden and Vice President Harris “have delivered for the Latino community.”
But not all members of the PAC or the Hispanic Caucus are supportive of Biden remaining at the top of the Democratic ticket. Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) are among House Democrats who have called for the president to leave the race. The group had agreed to endorse Biden before Biden’s debate performance on June 27, which rocked the president’s candidacy after he struggled to complete his sentences, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Members of BOLD PAC, which includes a majority of Hispanic Democrats in Congress, were only alerted shortly before the release went out.
More House Democrats are in discussions about how and when to publicly call on Biden to step down. Some believe there is no need to participate in sinking an already waterlogged ship, others want to give Biden the weekend and still more, like the four who jointly spoke out Friday, believe it is important to keep up the pressure.
In the Senate, a group of Democrats is also discussing whether to come forward as a group to call on Biden to step aside. They are also discussing the timing — where to do it after the weekend or sooner, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The mood among Democrats senators has shifted against Biden’s candidacy just in the last few days, according to multiple senior aides. Last week, Democratic senators were divided. But as new polling has shown that states he easily won in 2022, including New Mexico and Virginia, are now essentially tied, Democrats are increasingly fearing they could lose if Biden heads the ticket.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is in a tough reelection in a conservative state, added his name to the calls to withdraw on Thursday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and his lieutenants spent the week continuing to hear from concerned members. They have not warned members against coming out against Biden, as they did in the days immediately after the debate. Instead, they are telling their colleagues to do what is best for their campaigns.
Jeffries told reporters Friday he was continuing to support the Biden as “our nominee,” though his remarks were little changed from previous public comments, in which he has suggested the president needs to make a decision about his candidacy.
Some in the president’s orbit suggest the mounting pressure campaign is counterproductive.
“Message to everyone trying to affect the president’s decision about whether to pass the torch: GIVE JOE BIDEN THE SPACE & TIME TO PROCEED AT HIS OWN PACE.” Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School who has spoken to Biden since the debate, wrote on X on Friday. “Stop pressuring the man. He has earned the right to your respect.”
The debate over Biden’s candidacy became even more tense in the aftermath of the Republican National Convention, which ended with a lengthy, meandering and at times dark speech by Trump. The display convinced several Democratic officials that Trump could be beaten if the party has the right candidate.
“Donald Trump’s dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans,” Biden said in a statement after the speech. “Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box.”
Many in the party remain unconvinced. The 30-second ads by “Pass the Torch” feature Democratic voters in Pennsylvania urging Biden to step aside. Delegates Are Democracy, another newly formed group, held a Zoom for delegates to the Democratic National Convention to inform them how an open primary would work if Biden were to step aside.
Elaine Kamarck, an expert on presidential nominations and a member of the Democratic National Committee, told the gathered delegates that if Biden were to bow out of the race, the road to an open convention could be fast-moving and “fascinating.”
“Basically, think of it as a redo of the primary system in a very, very, very compressed period of time,” she said.
Amy B Wang and Mariana Alfaro contributed to this report.
