Calling in to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Biden took a populist tone in hitting back against the laundry list of prominent commentators who have urged him to exit the race. “I don’t care what those big names think,” he said. “They were wrong in 2020. They were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They are wrong in 2024.”
Biden made similar arguments in a call with some of his major donors, stressing that he won millions of votes in the Democratic primaries this year. “We’re done talking about the debate,” Biden said, according to a donor on the call, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.
One donor said Biden was more forceful than he had been in previous days. “Donors are saying, ‘Better later than never,’” the person said, adding that they wished Biden had made such calls to reassure supporters in the days after the debate.
After his remarks, Biden participated in a question-and-answer session to discuss the campaign ahead and his plans to beat Donald Trump in November.
The first question on the call was how Biden would change his preparation and framing of the next debate. “Attack, attack, attack, attack,” Biden replied. Another donor said they were grateful Biden was staying in the race and urged the President to “bring Scranton Joe to the next debate, because Scranton Joe can beat Donald Trump”.
The relatively friendly formats that Biden addressed on Monday did not reflect the turmoil that has rattled the Democratic Party in recent days, including on Capitol Hill. While several lawmakers have forcefully reaffirmed their allegiance to Biden, others have spent the past week agonising over his future and expressing grave doubts that the 81-year-old can defeat Trump in November. (Trump is 78.)
As of Sunday, nine House Democrats – four privately and five publicly – had called for Biden to exit the race. In addition, at least 18 current and former top Democrats as of Saturday had publicly raised concerns about Biden’s fitness for office and his ability to defeat Trump.
Biden will only face more scrutiny this week. As he faces growing pressure from Capitol Hill, the President is also hosting the 75th annual Nato summit in Washington, which European leaders had expected to be a largely celebratory event.
Instead, they will be anxiously monitoring Biden’s appearance and condition after the debate heightened anxieties about the prospect of a second Trump term, which many Nato leaders dread. Biden is scheduled to give a speech on Nato on Tuesday, meet with several heads and, in his most anticipated event, hold a solo news conference on Thursday. Biden is also scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Detroit on Friday.
Like Western leaders, members of Congress will be watching closely. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a highly influential figure, is in listening mode, and has so far kept his opinions on Biden’s situation to himself.
So has Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who like Jeffries must balance his allegiance to Biden with congressional Democrats’ concerns about holding their seats if Biden flounders in November.
The Biden campaign has significantly stepped up its outreach to Democrats on Capitol Hill in hopes of heading off more defections upon lawmakers’ return. That followed grumbling from many members that they had not heard from the President amid the crisis over his candidacy.
Biden called 20 Democrats last week – including Schumer, Jeffries, and Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and James E. Clyburn (SC) – to reassure Democrats that he is hearing their concerns, according to a campaign official. He is expected to reach out to more lawmakers in coming days.
Some Democrats are waiting to see how Biden fares on the campaign trail and at the Nato summit before deciding whether to call publicly for him to end his reelection bid. Others say privately they already consider Biden’s ramped-up schedule – and his effort to show his determination to fight – too little, too late.
One House Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide a candid analysis, said some Democrats were beginning to accept that Biden was dug in and unlikely to drop out of the race. This lawmaker said the party’s internal polling is mixed on whether Biden could hurt Democrats’ chances of recapturing the House and maintaining control of the Senate.
The calls on Capitol Hill for Biden to step aside have so far come from the House rather than the Senate, and any change in that dynamic would be notable. Last week, Senator Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) sought to form a group that would go to the White House and seek the President’s exit, although those plans appear to have fallen by the wayside.
On Friday, Biden told ABC News that “only the Lord Almighty” could persuade him to change his mind and drop out of the race. That prompted some pushback from congressional Democrats over the weekend.
“I certainly respect the Lord, but this is a real-world decision for him and for everyday Democratic senators and members of Congress,” Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said in an interview Sunday. “As much as we’d like divine intervention, it will elude us. So we have to act.”
In a preview of the divisive week ahead, 24 top Democrats on House committees joined a virtual call with Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.) on Sunday. Participants were divided over whether to defend or desert Biden, according to three people on the call, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak openly about internal party deliberations.
“President Biden beat Trump in 2020, and now, bolstered by his historic record of success, he’ll do it again in November,” Representative Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) said in a statement after the call. “Republicans are the biggest threat to the health of our democracy, our economy, and the people, and the President knows what’s at stake. I’m with him all the way.”
Democratic senators, long the President’s strongest base of support on the Hill, have kept quieter than their rowdier House counterparts. But behind the scenes, many senators share similar fears that Biden no longer has a path forward, according to multiple senators and aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the dynamics freely.
Warner’s tentative plan to assemble senators for an in-person meeting to discuss Biden’s future appeared to be scrapped after reporting about the effort scrambled the plans, one senator said. Instead, Democratic senators are likely to discuss Biden’s prospects at their regularly scheduled Tuesday lunch.
Many Democrats say privately they remain worried by “what ifs” surrounding Biden: What if he has another major verbal stumble after he officially becomes the Democratic nominee? What if he continues to decline if reelected and drags down congressional candidates in the midterms two years from now?
Some House Democrats are still weighing whether to urge Biden publicly to withdraw, saying the feedback from local leaders and constituents in their districts has been mixed. Some lawmakers also said that their offices have been getting calls from constituents all week, with some saying Biden should pull out and others saying he should stay in the fight.
In the call to his donors, Biden said he would focus more on attacking Trump in the weeks ahead. Biden and Trump are scheduled to debate again on September 10, less than two months before Election Day.
Not everyone on the call who wanted to ask a question was given a chance, but those who did were largely supportive of the President, the donor said. “He definitely isn’t thinking of dropping out, that’s for sure,” the donor said.
Hanging over the debate among Democrats is their agonising fear that a second term for Trump would be disastrous for the country, given his suggestions that he would target political adversaries and disregard longtime norms even more than he did during his first stint in the White House.
Some Democrats hope that very anxiety will ultimately unify the party.
“The fear of having another Trump presidency, especially given how much more unhinged he has been, is palpable,” said Representative Deborah Ross (D-N.C.). “And so I think people are going to pull together.”
