A meeting between Hispanic House Democrats and President Biden on Friday ended on a somewhat awkward note, with one of the lawmakers posing a question directly calling on the president to drop out of the race.
Bold PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, organized the call with two question periods, but Biden volunteered to answer a third question.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) used the opportunity to call on Biden to drop out of the presidential race against former President Trump.
Levin’s request was muted and included praise for Biden and his policies, but was based on his interactions with voters in his district, according to multiple sources.
In his response, Biden explained why there has been such a surge in public activity over the past few weeks.
“That’s why I go out and I let people touch me and poke me and ask me questions. I think I know what I’m doing. Because the truth is, and I’ll tell you this, this is crazy, but no president other than President Franklin Roosevelt has accomplished what we’ve accomplished in the last three years, and it was with your help. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s a fact. No president has done it,” Biden said, according to a source familiar with the conversations.
“That doesn’t answer the question: Mr. Biden, when you were feeling great, you were fine, are you OK now? That’s what’s underlying it. That’s what people are worried about: ‘I have a grandfather who’s 85 and can’t walk.’ People are right to be worried, but that’s why I think it’s important for me to go out there and show people how well I can move, how knowledgeable I am, and that I’m still very much in charge, all that stuff.”
After the call, Levin released a statement praising Biden but urging him to “follow his lead.”
“We must overcome the immense threat that Donald Trump poses to American freedom and our democratic institutions, who actively seeks a dark authoritarianism and the overthrow of the values that have guided us to justice and prosperity for nearly two and a half centuries,” Levin said in a statement.
“Once again, we must forge the courage of our people in the test of history. Now is the time to move forward. With new leadership, together.”
Since last month’s debate between Biden and Trump, insider sentiment about Biden’s viability as a nominee has risen and fallen along with his performance in public, while some Democrats have steadily joined calls for Biden to step aside.
Biden’s performance at a solo news conference after a NATO summit in Washington on Thursday eased concerns that the president had lost his grip on policy issues, but verbal gaffes and inconsistent delivery raise questions about his ability to communicate the administration’s accomplishments.
Biden’s schedule on Friday included a meeting with the House of Councillors and then a meeting with the Asian Pacific American Caucus of Congress, which was scheduled to begin about an hour before the CHC meeting ended.
The host of the call, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chair of the Bold PAC, ended the call after Biden responded to Levin and mentioned the president’s upcoming appointments.
“Mr. President, once again, I want to thank you for your time. This will be my final question for today, but I understand that the President has other commitments with his colleagues in the Asian American and Asian American community,” Sanchez said.
Several senior members of the CHC, including Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the second Democrat and first CHC member to call for Biden’s withdrawal, did not attend the call for travel or other reasons.
After the call, many CHC members said they were pleased with the content of the meeting but not with the leaks about Levin’s exchange with Biden.
According to Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), who is also co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign, Reps. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) were the Bold PAC members who first asked Sanchez to get in line.
“She said they were the two people who could definitely ask questions, but the chair had a list of all the members on the call who wanted to raise their hand and ask a question, and in fact, at one point during the conversation, she announced who was in line,” Escobar said.
Correa, a member of the “Three Amigos” who have been at odds with Democratic Party leaders on immigration, stressed the importance of finding a path to citizenship for long-time undocumented immigrants.
“Mr. President, we need your help. We need your support for Latino voters. And I say again, we need a powerful message of hope from you,” Correa said, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
“They need hope that they can become Americans. I want you to address these families in your message and tell them that my second Administration will pave the way for all of you who have lived here for decades, obeyed the law and paid your taxes to be part of the American dream,” the president later added.
Biden, who received a significant boost from immigrant advocacy groups within the CHC when he announced immigration relief for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens in June, responded by touting a bipartisan border deal (unpopular with the group but critical of Trump) and an immigration relief package that was highly favorable to the CHC.
“Look, I strongly agree with what you just said. I’m not joking, I mean it. And one of the things I tried to achieve was, with your help, a bipartisan compromise that was negotiated over weeks. And then Trump decided that it was in our interest and he said cancel it. And everyone else has pulled out,” Biden said.
“That’s why we issued an executive order to ensure that, for example, over 1 million Latinos who are married to U.S. citizens can obtain full citizenship and green cards. And that would be a game changer.”
But the anonymous leak exposed divisions within the CHC, which has seen extreme ups and downs in terms of member unity.
“It’s unfortunate that we have members of Congress who are undermining Linda’s leadership, undermining her colleagues, undermining the president, and frankly, all of this is helping Donald Trump,” Escobar said.
Michael Schnell contributed to this report.
