More Democrats ask Biden to drop out. His campaign says he'll be back next week
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President Biden does some retail campaigning at Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, alongside Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., on July 16. A case of COVID took Biden off the trail the following day.Kent Nishimura / AFP via Getty Images -
Vice President Harris and her grand-nieces get ice cream from a shop owned by Tyra Banks, center left, in Washington, on July 19.Mark Schiefelbein/AP / AP
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del./WASHINGTON — More Democratic lawmakers on Friday publicly called for President Biden to end his campaign, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who said the intraparty drama was a distraction from issues important to voters in his tough reelection race this fall.
Biden was isolating in his beach house after getting COVID earlier this week. But he said in a statement on Friday that he would be back on the campaign trail next week.
His party has gone through an excruciatingly public deliberation over the past three weeks after Biden froze up during a debate with former President Donald Trump. Top leaders in Congress have failed to publicly deny a steady drip of leaks that they've appealed to Biden to step aside for a younger candidate because they think he can't win the election.
Asked about the scores of headlines reporting that Biden is considering whether to leave the race, his campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that party leaders should consider the strong grassroots support for Biden and resolve their doubts over whether he should stay in the race for a second term.
“You have heard from the president directly time and again. He is in this race to win and he is our nominee and he's going to be our president for a second term," O'Malley Dillon said.
More Democrats ask Biden to step aside
There are now four senators who have asked their former long-time colleague to step aside. On Friday — the morning after Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention — Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., joined the list.
"By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation's greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy," said Heinrich, who is running for reelection in what is supposed to be a safe seat for the party.
A group of four prominent members from the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the progressive caucus called on Biden to stop running. "We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign," said Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
And there were a steady drip of other Democratic lawmakers issuing statements on Friday. Democratic sources told NPR that they expect more lawmakers will go public with concerns about the president's viability as a candidate, saying the process will take more time to play out as they watch DNC convention rules committee meetings this weekend.
But, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, BOLD PAC, endorsed Biden. "It is clear that Latino voters will decide the margin of victory in competitive races up and down the ballot this cycle, from California and New Mexico to Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Nebraska, said Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., chair of BOLD PAC.
Harris has campaign travel planned, too
If Biden were to drop out, it's unclear who would take his place. Vice President Harris is an obvious choice, and a group of young Democratic governors are also seen as having future presidential ambitions. All of them have said they fully support Biden.
Harris — who took her grand-nieces for ice cream in Washington on Friday — has travel planned for Massachusetts on Saturday, Milwaukee on Tuesday and Indianapolis on Wednesday.
The campaign has not yet announced where Biden will be traveling next week. On Friday, his doctor said his COVID symptoms have improved. He is taking the antiviral Paxlovid.
Biden campaign is pointing to support from grassroots Democrats
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention's rules committee met about the virtual roll call vote it plans to hold in early August to ensure the party's candidate is official before early state deadlines that come before the party's convention begins on Aug. 19.
The party is worried about lawsuits, the DNC's outside counsel Dana Remus said. "Unfortunately, at this moment in time, we have to assume that everything about the election process that Republicans and affiliated groups can challenge, they will challenge no matter the strength of their arguments," Remus said.
Another DNC committee will meet on Sunday to discuss the roll call further.
O’Malley Dillon said it has been a “tough several weeks” for the campaign but said the party needs to unify.
She said Biden has “the greatest respect for the leaders of our party” – referring to reports about the doubts expressed by congressional leaders and former President Barack Obama.
But O’Malley Dillon pointed to a letter now signed by 1,400 Black women leaders from across the country released this week that strongly backed Biden and urged party leaders to “stop the attacks” against him.
“We reject all efforts to disregard this fact or to circumvent the will of millions of voters” who backed Biden in the primaries, the women said in a signed copy of the letter obtained by NPR.
O’Malley Dillon said that the campaign has “seen some slippage in support” since Biden’s disastrous debate, but said party volunteers have found strong interest on the ground in battleground states.
“People are not moving from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. What they’re doing is they’re saying to us, 'Can he do it?' And the president is saying, 'Yes, I can,'" she said.
Transcript
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Democrats returned to Capitol Hill today after a holiday week break that was far from a vacation from politics. The party is in turmoil over how to move forward following President Biden's disastrous debate performance and an on-camera interview that did not go far enough to dispel questions about his age and fitness for office. This morning Biden was defiant on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MORNING JOE")
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I am not going anywhere. I wouldn't be running if I didn't absolutely believe that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024.
KELLY: Is it enough when calls from fellow Democratic lawmakers for Biden to step aside are getting louder? NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales joins me now. Hey, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: OK, so we just heard a little taste there of his appearance. That was MSNBC this morning. Biden also wrote a long letter today defending his plan, saying, I'm staying in the race. Did those two things help? What are you hearing?
GRISALES: No, I'm hearing that both sides are still unmoved. And there's two categories here, those who are speaking publicly and those who are speaking privately. Some key members raised concerns over the weekend about Biden remaining in the race, including four committee leaders, such as Adam Smith of Washington state, who's the top-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
But so far, the ranks of people explicitly calling for him to drop out are smaller than those backing him. For example, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said today, quote, "as I've said before, I'm for Joe." He will play a major role on the next steps. His counterpart in the House - that is, House Democratic Leader Hakim Jeffries - also backed Biden recently. That all said, there's many speaking privately about their quiet concerns and hopes for Biden to leave the race, including a handful of senior House Democrats who expressed those concerns in a private call with Jeffries and other leaders yesterday.
KELLY: Claudia, in that answer, I just heard you use the word private or privately three times. It sounds like lawmakers are saying one thing out loud and another thing privately. You've been talking to some of these lawmakers. What are they saying to you?
GRISALES: Right. They were granted anonymity to speak candidly about these private conversations. They worry there's limited time for Biden to leave the race. And by the time of their August convention, it will be too late. One told me they thought Biden was fragile, and a couple of members also told me they're concerned that Biden and the White House have now dug in. So the challenge here is this could present great political risk for members who do decide to speak out publicly. Now, Democrats will have their regular weekly meeting tomorrow, and they say that's going to be a major test and a chance to decide if they'll all push together for a nominee. And we can say the same for Senate Democrats, who are holding their regular meeting tomorrow as well.
KELLY: Well, where does this Sleeve Biden's relationship with his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill?
GRISALES: This is clearly a low point. There's significant concern that Biden hasn't addressed the alarm after his debate performance. One told me they wanted to see Biden replace some key advisors on his campaign team. That has not happened. And his outreach overall on the Hill appears low, even in the midst of this crisis, and that's perhaps why we continue to see fallout here. So ultimately, this is a test for congressional Democrats. Can they get on the same page, and also, how much influence do they have here?
KELLY: Claudia, are you detecting any pattern here? You said there are two camps, two categories - those who want to push Biden to stay in the race, those who want to push him to drop out.
GRISALES: Right. We're seeing Democrats generally in safe blue districts defend Biden. That includes Florida Democrat Frederica Wilson, who put out a scathing statement. She said, quote, "any leader calling for Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining him." She said, stop listening to the political pundits, and focus on what's at stake. So this is going to be tricky. The Congressional Black Caucus, for example, will have a call with Biden tonight. That's another test in terms of where he can move members to speak out publicly in his favor. But we're seeing these concerns, and ultimately, this is a political test for Biden, and some are worried that he's treating it like a medical test.
KELLY: NPR's Claudia Grisales on Capitol Hill. Thank you, Claudia.
GRISALES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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