The darkest moment of President Biden’s political career appeared to be approaching Thursday, with Democratic Party leaders urging him to step down, polls showing his standing against former President Trump continuing to weaken and donors worried fundraising would dry up.
Biden has repeatedly tried to heal the wounds he inflicted on himself after his dismal performance at the June 27 debate in Atlanta.
Since then, efforts to shore up support have included conference calls and one-on-one meetings with congressional Democrats, interviews with major television networks and friendly radio stations, and a solo news conference at a NATO summit last week.
None of it worked.
There is now a sense of crisis in Washington, and across the Democratic Party, as even Biden’s previously staunchest supporters increasingly accept the fact that the end may be near.
“I’d be shocked if he didn’t step aside,” one longtime Biden supporter within the party told this column on Thursday.
Another Democratic strategist said the decision about whether to continue the campaign is up to Biden, but “there are a lot of people trying to influence that decision.”
Asked if he knew of anyone trying to lobby for Biden to remain a candidate rather than step down, the strategist said, “I’ve never heard anyone who doesn’t work for the president make that argument.”
The reluctance of people to publicly speak out against the president underscores broader claims by his supporters that the media is exaggerating the crisis and relying too heavily on anonymous sources to try to force Biden out of office.
Biden himself has pointed to the number of votes cast for him in this year’s primaries – more than 14 million – to suggest his critics are trying to deny the will of the party.
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign responded to reporters’ questions about comments made by chief deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks during a Thursday morning press conference that was intended to criticize Republicans at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“I speak to the president every day,” Fulks said, “and he’s not upset about anything. The president has made his decision. I don’t want to be disrespectful, but I don’t know how many more times I can answer this question. Joe Biden has said he’s running for president of the United States. Our campaign is moving forward.”
Fulks also argued that Biden and his campaign staff still view the race with Trump as “a race within the margin of error,” just as they did before the debate.
While some polls show the race is close, the overall tide of the race appears to be leaning toward Trump, at least in some surveys, a trend that has accelerated amid Democratic confusion over whether Biden should remain on the running.
An Emerson College poll released Thursday showed Trump ahead of Biden in seven battleground states. CBS News/YouGov Poll A poll released late Thursday afternoon gave Trump a five-point national lead. A poll released by the group on July 3 gave Trump just a two-point lead nationally.
Given the Electoral College and the uncertainty of battleground states, Trump’s national advantage is significant.
Trump won the 2016 election despite losing the popular vote to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Biden’s 2020 victory was very narrow in key states, despite beating Trump by more than four points nationally.
Democrats are not just panicking about the growing possibility that Trump will win the November election — though they, of course, view such a scenario as a disaster — they also fear that Biden could destroy other candidates in the race.
of The Washington Post reported. The most senior Democrats in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, have each made the allegation against Biden within the past week.
ABC News reported. Schumer had directly told Biden he would be better off resigning.
of The Washington Post reported separately. Former President Barack Obama told allies that Biden’s path to a second term had become much narrower.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) largely agreed, and some Democrats saw her thinking reflected in an op-ed by one of her ally, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), on Wednesday calling on Biden to step down.
Reports that prominent Democrats are urging Biden to consider a position have been met with some pushback but no outright denial.
A spokesman for Schumer said an ABC News report that Schumer had suggested Biden step down was “unfounded speculation,” while a spokesman for Pelosi complained about “media frenzy” that “misrepresented the speaker’s conversation with the president.”
On social media, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates Reply from a personal account “False. Keep the faith,” he wrote Thursday in response to an Axios report that Biden may be forced to withdraw from the election.
The problem is that confidence in Biden appears to be fading.
More than 20 Democrats in Congress have called on the president to withdraw from the race, with more said to be on the way.
On Thursday, a private letter sent to Biden by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on July 6 was suddenly made public. The letter offered lavish praise on the president before likening him to a tired baseball pitcher.
The president’s position was further precarious after an attempt to hold an early roll call vote to approve him as his party’s nominee was unsuccessful and postponed.
In the current political climate, it is wise to always be aware that surprises can occur.
Perhaps Biden can turn it all around, confront the growing chorus of discontent.
But now, even those who like and respect him are finding the future uncertain.
“The only way he can protect his legacy is to resign,” a longtime supporter told the column.
This note is a reporting column by Niall Stanage.
