Biden is facing growing calls from his party’s top contenders to step aside ahead of a Thursday news conference he hopes will reassure Democrats that he is prepared to campaign and win the November election.
On Thursday, the walls seemed to be closing in on Biden and his campaign. NBC News and The New York Times Even campaign aides questioned his path to victory.
“I think the biggest question right now is not if this will happen, but when,” one campaign rep said.
Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said stories that some advisers were discussing ways to get Biden to back out were “categorically false.” “This team stands with the President,” Ducklo wrote in a post on X.
Biden himself has not signaled he plans to drop out. His campaign on Thursday circulated an internal memo obtained by The Hill in which he asserted that only Biden can beat Trump.
The group argued that polls showing other Democratic candidates doing better against Trump than Biden are “not credible.”
Democrats outside the White House claimed morale was low.
“It really feels like a last-ditch effort. Morale is at an all-time low. I’ve never seen it this bad,” one campaign rep told The Hill.
Another Democratic official said the Biden campaign appeared to be trying to reassure allies or buy time before the party’s convention in August by scheduling events such as a primetime interview with NBC on Monday and trips to Texas and Nevada next week. The president is scheduled to campaign in Michigan on Friday before heading to Delaware for the weekend.
The tougher timeline has done little to ease the fears of congressional Democrats, some of whom have suggested the dam could soon break.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said on CNN he wasn’t sure if Biden would be the party’s nominee next week.
“Things are evolving rapidly,” he said, “and I want to create space for the president and the White House to make careful, thoughtful and patriotic decisions.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-New York) suggested Biden has little room to salvage his image at this point after his disastrous debate performance.
“Neither tonight’s press conference nor Monday night’s NBC interview will provide the political relief the President is seeking,” Torres wrote on X on Thursday.
So far, 12 Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
“There’s growing momentum to reconsider,” a Democratic fundraiser told The Hill.
“The pressures at this point are unbearable and they know it. This is like a deep ocean situation,” said a Democratic strategist close to the campaign.
One donor who spoke with campaign officials on Thursday said the press conference was a “Hail Mary pass for Biden.”
“They know they can’t stand this,” the source said.
Several Democrats expect there will be further calls for Biden to withdraw from the race at the end of the NATO summit in Washington DC this week.
The fracas came just days after Biden appeared to quiet calls for him to step down in an all-out campaign: He wrote a letter to Democratic lawmakers on Monday saying he was “firmly committed” to staying in the race, met virtually with the Congressional Black Caucus and received statements of support from some of his closest aides.
But over the past 48 hours, these public displays of support appear to have all but disappeared.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) left open the possibility that Biden might choose not to run, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) became the first Senate Democrat to call on Biden to step aside, and actor George Clooney called on Biden to drop out of the race in a New York Times op-ed just weeks after hosting a fundraiser for the president.
Some Democrats are reluctant to call for Biden to withdraw, wanting him to make the decision himself and on the most favorable terms possible for the party, and others still see any damage to Biden as less risky than the chaos of replacing him.
“There’s a difference of opinion on what the best outcome is, but also a difference of opinion on how to achieve what people think is best,” one Democratic lawmaker told The Hill. “At the end of the day, this has to be a presidential decision, and that’s why I think you’re seeing a variety of approaches.”
Several of Biden’s top advisers met with Democratic senators on Thursday, and after the meeting, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) described the atmosphere of the talks as “constructive, serious and candid.”
“I need to hear and see more analysis and data that shows a path to victory, but my concerns remain as I continue to support the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. More important than my concerns is the need for Joe Biden to answer the questions posed by the American people,” he said.
Other Democrats appear to be losing patience.
“If we continue as we are, there’s a good chance that Donald Trump will win the election and lose the Senate and the House of Representatives,” said Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
An internal campaign memo refuted suggestions that another candidate would fare better than Biden.
He also called the discussion a “setback.”ABC/Ipsos PollThe paper showed Biden and Trump tied in the polls Thursday and outlined Biden’s clearest path to victory as winning Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“While we believe there is a clear path forward, there is also no indication that any other candidate could win over President Trump. Hypothetical polling of alternative candidates is always unreliable, and the surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that a Democratic candidate would face,” the memo said. “The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already built in is President Biden.”
Al Weaver contributed to this report.
