Biden's ability to win over skeptical Democrats is being tested at a perilous moment for 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 eased pressure to drop him from the 2024 race.
Biden has overwhelming choices before him this weekend that could shape the direction of the country and his party as the nation heads into the November election with a rousing GOP following the Republican nominating convention to return Trump 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 have said 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, earned support from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told MSNBC on Saturday that the vice president is “ready to step up” to unify the party and take on Trump if Biden decides to bow out. Warren said knowing this “gives me a lot of hope right now.”
More MPs are expected to speak in the coming days. Donors have expressed concern. And an organization calling for Biden to “pass the torch” plans a rally outside the White House on Saturday. Biden insists he's all in.
“There is no joy in the recognition that he should not be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Representative Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats urging Biden to drop out of the race. “But the stakes in this election are very high and we cannot risk the focus of the campaign being anything other than Donald Trump.”
The impasse has become increasingly unbearable for the party and its leaders, a month from the Democratic National Convention that was supposed to be a unifying moment to nominate its incumbent president to confront Trump. Instead, the party is at a crossroads not seen in generations.
That's creating a very friendly relationship with Republicans who, after years of bitter and chaotic wrangling over Trump, have essentially embraced the former president's far-right takeover of the GOP, despite his criminal convictions in the hush money case and pending federal criminal charges. Overturn the 2020 election before January 6, 2021, storm the Capitol.
Biden, 81, is isolated from his beach home in Delaware, with a COVID infection, but also with family and a small circle of close political advisers. White House doctor 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 insists he is ready to return to the campaign trail this coming week to oppose the “dark vision” Trump has laid out.
“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. Together, we will overcome. “
But outside the Rehoboth enclave, debate and passion are intensifying.
A donor call with about 300 people on Friday was described as a waste of time by one participant, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. While the person was complimentary of Harris, who spoke for five minutes, the rest of the time was filled by others who brushed aside the donor's concerns, according to the participant.
Not only are Democrats divided on what to do with Biden, they also lack consensus on how to choose a successor.
Democrats campaigning to oust Biden don't seem to be united around a plan for what to do next. Very few lawmakers mentioned Harris in their statements, and some said they favored an open nomination process that would put the party's endorsement behind a new candidate.
Democratic sense. Montana's Jon Tester and Vermont's Peter Welch have both called on Biden to drop out of the race and said they support an open nominating process at the convention.
“Whoever is the final candidate is stronger because it's open,” Welch said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Other Democrats say the country's first female vice president, Harris, who is black and Southeast Asian, would be arguably ineffective by planning a virtual nominating vote before the Democratic convention opens in Chicago early next month. August 19.
Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, who called for Biden to step aside, clearly endorsed Harris as a replacement.
“To give Democrats a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I'm calling on President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice President Harris to step forward as the Democratic nominee for president,” McCollum said in his statement.
It's unclear if, if anything, the president can reverse course and win over lawmakers and Democratic voters, who are wary of Trump's ability to defeat and serve another term after his debate performance stalled last month.
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say Biden should drop out of the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are. Some “big names” like him but still with him.
At the same time, a majority of Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do a good job at the top, according to a separate AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
Biden, who has sent scathing letters to congressional Democrats vowing to stay in the race, has yet to visit Capitol Hill to drum up support, an absence noted by senators and representatives.
The president conducted a round of virtual conversations with various caucuses last week — some of which ended badly.
During a call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Mike Levin told Biden he had to quit. In another row with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, California Rep. Biden became defensive when Jared Hoffman asked him to consider meeting with top party leaders about the way forward.
Hoffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called on Biden to step aside on Friday.
At the same time, Biden still has strong supporters. He picked up an endorsement Friday from the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has the backing of leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
