Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a key centrist close to him, are trying to rally support among Democratic senators to urge President Biden to not seek reelection, according to two sources familiar with the effort.
Warner worries that Biden could perform so badly in the November election that he risks defeating Democratic senators who were thought to be in relatively safe districts, such as Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
“He’s in conversations with a lot of his colleagues all the time. There’s a statewide campaign going on in Virginia,” said a source familiar with Warner’s efforts to rally support among Democratic senators to urge Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“He’s going to be in the spotlight in the Virginia Senate race. People thought it was going to be an easy win, but it wasn’t,” the source said, referring to recent polls that showed Biden and former President Trump tied in Virginia, adding that it could be a tough fight for incumbent Kaine.
“People in the White House are probably a little frustrated, but this is an effort that a lot of Democrats needed to undertake,” the source added.
“He’s a member of the U.S. senate,” the source added, stressing that Warner knows his influence is limited given that Biden has won 3,894 delegates and is a lock for the nomination if he continues his campaign.
Biden, Questioned about the report “He’s the one,” John F. Kennedy said of Warner’s work while leaving a campaign event in Wisconsin, adding that he had spoken about his campaign to at least 20 members of Congress who had endorsed him.
And when Biden was asked about the effort during an ABC News interview that aired Friday night, the president responded, “Well, Mark is a good guy. … Mark and I think differently. I respect him.”
The Washington Post first reported that Warner was trying to assemble a group of Democratic senators to urge Biden to drop out of the race.
Warner spokeswoman Rachel Cohen would neither confirm nor deny the report.
“Like many in Washington and across the country, Senator Warner believes this is a critical time in the presidential campaign and has made that clear to the White House,” Cohen told The Post in a statement.
Trump and Biden are currently in a close race in Virginia, with Trump holding a slight lead 43.9 percent to 43.7 percent, according to 18 polls analyzed by The Hill’s Decision Desk.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Friday, Biden insisted he would continue to campaign.
“They’re trying to throw me out of the race,” he told the cheering crowd. “Let me be very clear: I’m going to continue to run.”
“I’m not going to waste three and a half years of hard work on a 90-minute debate,” he said.
Senate Democrats have so far remained relatively supportive of Biden.
But two liberal senators from the Northeast, Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Iowa, have publicly voiced concerns about the Biden team, signaling that more Senate Democrats are deeply wary of the Biden team’s path.
In an interview with Semaphore, Welch criticized the Biden campaign for ignoring concerns and worries expressed by Democrats about Biden’s viability as a nominee following his disappointing debate performance.
“I really criticize the campaign’s dismissive attitude toward people who raise questions for the sake of debate, and that’s just the reality we’re facing,” Welch said in an interview Monday.
In an interview with CNN later this week, Welch warned that Biden could wipe out lower-ranking Democratic candidates if he remains the party’s nominee and fails to revive his faltering campaign.
“If the election goes really badly, there will be some serious headwinds,” he said.
“The most important thing is to get President Trump out of office and get Democrats back in power. I think that’s the best way we can help our Senate candidates who are doing well but facing tough challenges,” he said.
When asked by CNN host Brianna Keilar whether Biden should seek a second term, Welch said that was up to Biden.
“That’s the problem,” he said. “He’s wrestling with it. He’s reading the polls.”
“I’m confident that ultimately the president will make a decision based on what’s best for the country,” he added.
Whitehouse told local media earlier this week that the Biden campaign needed to reassure Democrats and voters that the debate gaffes were an anomaly.
“Like a lot of people, I was pretty intimidated by the debate. … I think the public wants to be sure that this campaign is set up to win, that the president and his team are speaking frankly about how the president is doing — that this is really something unusual, that this isn’t how he’s been lately,” Whitehouse said.
Schumer reiterated his support for the president earlier this week.
The Senate Democratic leader told reporters in Syracuse that he and the president “have worked hard together for four years and accomplished a lot for our country and for central New York.”
“I support Biden,” he declared.
