Biden's ability to win back skeptical Democrats is being tested at a dangerous moment for his campaign
WASHINGTON DC: Despite a week of campaign appearances, interviews and assurances that he is the best candidate to stand up to Republican Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has not eased the pressure to drop him out of the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
Biden has powerful options at his disposal this weekend that could determine the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads toward the November election, with Republicans energized to send Trump back to the White House after the Republican nominating convention.
Representative Mark Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, added his name on Saturday to the list of nearly three dozen congressional Democrats who say it's time for Biden to drop out of the race. The Californian called on Biden to “pass the torch” to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris, meanwhile, received support from Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who told MSNBC on Saturday that the vice president was “ready to step in” to unite the party and take on Trump should Biden decide to step down. Warren said that knowledge “gives me a lot of hope right now.”
More lawmakers are likely to speak out in the coming days. Donors have voiced their concerns. And an organization calling on Biden to pass the torch has planned a rally outside the White House for Saturday. Biden has stressed that he is fully on board.
“It brings us no joy to realize that he should not be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats calling for Biden to drop out of the race. “But there is too much at stake in this election and we cannot risk the focus of the campaign being on anything other than Donald Trump.”
A month before the Democratic National Convention, which was supposed to be a moment of unity to nominate the incumbent president to face Trump, the stalemate has become increasingly unbearable for the party and its leaders. Instead, the party finds itself at a crossroads not seen in generations.
This creates a stark contrast to Republicans, who, after years of bitter and chaotic power struggles over Trump, have essentially approved the far-right ex-president's Republican takeover of power – despite his criminal conviction in a hush money case and a pending federal indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 election before the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
From his beach house in Delaware, Biden, 81, is isolating himself because of a COVID infection, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House physician Kevin O'Connor said Friday the president still has a dry cough and hoarseness, but his COVID symptoms have improved.
The president's team stressed that he was ready to return to the campaign trail next week to counter Trump's “dark vision.”
“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement on Friday. “The stakes are high and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”
But outside the enclave of Rehoboth, debates and tempers are heating up.
One participant in a conference call with about 300 donors on Friday called it a waste of time. He would remain anonymous to discuss the private conversation. While the person who spoke for five minutes praised Harris, the rest of the time was taken up by others brushing aside donors' concerns, the participant said.
Not only do Democrats disagree about what Biden should do, they also disagree about how a successor should be chosen.
Democrats who are pushing for Biden's resignation do not appear to have agreed on a plan for how to proceed. Very few lawmakers have mentioned Harris in their statements, and some have said they favor an open nomination process in which the party would support a new candidate.
Democratic Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont called on Biden to drop out of the race and said they would support an open nomination process at the party convention.
“An open debate would strengthen the eventual candidate,” Welch said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to pass on Harris, the country's first vice president who is black and Southeast Asian, and logistically unfeasible, with a virtual nomination vote scheduled for early next month, before the opening of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19.
Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, who had called on Biden to resign, explicitly endorsed Harris as his successor.
“To give Democrats a strong and viable path to the White House, I urge President Biden to release his delegates and authorize Vice President Harris to run as the Democratic presidential nominee,” McCollum said in her statement.
It is unclear what else the president could do to change course and win back lawmakers and Democratic voters who doubt he can defeat Trump and give him another term after his lame performance in the U.S. debate last month.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats think Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate another candidate, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, clearly contradicting Biden's post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still behind him even as some “big names” turn against him.
At the same time, according to a separate poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a majority of Democrats believe that Kamala Harris would do a good job in the top job.
Biden, who sent a defiant letter to Democrats in Congress vowing to stay in the race, has not yet visited the Capitol to drum up support – an absence that has been noticed by senators and representatives.
The President has had a series of virtual conversations with various members of the caucus over the past week – some of which ended badly.
During a conference call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Democrat Mike Levin of California called on Biden to resign. During another conference call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Biden reacted defensively when California Rep. Jared Huffman asked him to consider meeting with the party's top leaders to discuss how to proceed.
Huffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called on Biden to resign on Friday.
At the same time, Biden still has strong backers. On Friday, he received support from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus campaign team and is backed by the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
