Senate Democrats met privately on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to express doubts that President Biden could beat former President Trump in November’s presidential election, but none called for Biden to be replaced as the nominee, a sign that the president has so far quelled a rebellion within his party.
After the meeting, several senators said the debate was all but settled for now, with Biden signalling his determination to remain at the top of the list of candidates and acknowledging that he had secured the number of pledged delegates needed to fend off any challengers at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Still, lawmakers say the debate about whether to replace Biden will not go away, given his disastrous defeat at last month’s debate in Atlanta and new polls showing him falling behind Trump.
After the Democrats left the convention, the Cook Political Report released new assessments of the Electoral College for six states, all of which went to Trump. The independent forecaster upgraded Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia from close to “Republican-like,” and Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District from “Democrat-like” to “Democrat-like.”
A person familiar with private discussions within the Democratic caucus said a “vast majority” of senators who spoke during Tuesday’s meeting expressed serious concerns about Biden’s ability to beat Trump after his debate performance.
But the source said that while senators were “vehemently” raising those concerns, they “stopped short” of actually calling for Trump to be replaced.
A second person familiar with the meeting said Sens. Jon Tester (D-Montana), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) made it clear they thought Biden would lose to Trump in November’s presidential election.
Other Democratic senators who spoke at the meeting warned that Democrats were “headed for serious trouble” in November if Biden remained the nominee, according to the sources.
“Others have said we’re in real trouble,” the source added.
“Biden has not done a good job of reassuring the American people and himself that he can get the job done for the next four years,” Tester told colleagues at the meeting, according to a senior Democratic aide.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) invited a range of senators with different viewpoints to share ideas at the luncheon, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Democrat), who is facing a tough re-election campaign in Wisconsin, another battleground state, said many of her voters were deeply concerned about whether Biden could beat Trump and serve another four years in a demanding job.
“I’ve been traveling around the state over the recess, over the holidays, and I’ve heard a lot of concerns from constituents about the president’s ability to win the election, so I think everybody’s going to be watching very closely and I think it’s going to be very instructive to see how the president performs this week,” she said.
A post-debate poll of 1,052 Wisconsin voters commissioned by AARP found Trump leading in the key battleground state with 50 percent approval, to Biden’s 45 percent.
“Nothing has changed, and I think we’re going to continue to have healthy conversations like we had today and go from there,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Iowa), who said last week that Biden’s debate performance raised serious questions about whether he could serve another term.
Whitehouse declined to say whether he thought Biden could beat Trump in the November presidential election, telling reporters: “I’m going to avoid that altogether and I’m going to defer any questions about Biden to the president.”
A Democratic senator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while Biden remains the party’s front-runner, “anything is possible” going forward, including the possibility of holding a public convention in Chicago, if he changes his mind about continuing in the campaign.
A Senate Democratic aide said if you privately polled Democratic senators asking whether they thought Biden would beat Trump, “47 out of 50 would say no.”
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Bennet both strongly argued at Tuesday’s meeting that Biden needs to spend more time and energy talking about his vision for the American economy and how to address widening income and wealth inequality, according to senators who attended the meeting.
“This country’s working class is suffering. We have unprecedented income and wealth inequality and a political system dominated by billionaires. We must speak to the needs of the working class, take on powerful, wealthy special interests and prove that we can stand up for ordinary people, and we can win,” Sanders said, repeating the message he delivered to his colleagues at the luncheon.
Asked whether Biden could effectively convey that message, Sanders declined to answer.
Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat who faces a tough reelection fight in the battleground state of Pennsylvania and campaigned with Biden on Sunday, said the president could still win the state but warned it wouldn’t be easy.
“It’s going to be difficult,” he acknowledged.
A recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll conducted after the debate showed Biden trailing Trump by seven points in the Keystone State.
But Casey said he is focused on his own race.
“As a candidate I have a job to do. I have to keep working every day to make sure people understand the difference between me and my opponent. It’s a tough fight,” he said.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) expressed concerns at Tuesday’s luncheon about Biden’s viability as a nominee, as some of his colleagues have done publicly in recent days, but said Biden’s letter to Congress on Monday announcing his intention to remain in the race had diminished hopes of a sudden change in the nominee.
“I definitely have confidence in him as a candidate. He’s not just going to campaign hard, he’s going to win in November,” he said.
Padilla said the discussions among Senate Democrats were “largely consistent with what we’ve heard publicly before,” including “some of the questions and concerns that have been raised.”
But Biden said his letter to Democratic lawmakers provided “answers” about the prospect of replacing him with Vice President Harris, California Governor Gavin Newsom or another candidate before the November election.
“I think we got our answer when the president sent us his letter yesterday morning,” Padilla said, noting that there are less than 120 days until the election. “It’s time to put that time and energy into organizing voters and getting people to vote.”
Asked whether Biden’s letter closed the door on further discussions about finding a new nominee, Padilla said: “In my opinion, yes.”
The White House appears to have stepped up its outreach to senators after the meeting.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, who called Brown as he walked onto the Senate floor after the meeting, was unable to reach him to discuss the content of the conversation.
Sen. Chris Coons (Delaware), who led the discussion at Tuesday’s luncheon, delivered a forceful and passionate defense of Biden’s record and his ability to win the November election.
Coons, who serves as national co-chair of the Biden campaign, reportedly told colleagues that “Joe Biden has a great record” and that “Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our democracy in our lifetimes.”
“This week is NATO week, and if you’re talking about NATO week, you should emphasize that Donald Trump has publicly said, ‘If our NATO allies don’t pay, we’re going to let Russia do whatever it wants,'” Coons said, summarizing his remarks.
“I understand people have concerns about the debates. Donald Trump’s debate performance was awful. He told complete lies, over and over again, on the debate stage,” Coons added. “But we’ve spent all our time talking about one candidate’s performance and not the other.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), one of the most powerful women in the Senate, issued a statement Monday night declaring that “President Biden must work harder to demonstrate he can run a campaign strong enough to beat President Donald Trump,” a point she reiterated after meeting with colleagues on Tuesday.
“Nominees must be able to clearly explain what the Democratic Party has accomplished and what we will do to improve the lives of American families and protect their freedoms, including ensuring affordable and accessible child care for parents everywhere,” she said in a statement.
Some Democrats took Murray’s comments as an implicit challenge to Schumer, who reiterated his support for Biden remaining the nominee.
When asked by reporters about the possibility of Biden facing a challenge from within his party, Schumer said, “As I’ve said before, I support Joe.”
This story was updated at 7:22 p.m.
