TTwo weeks after Joe Biden’s nightmare debate, the White House is trying to navigate an increasingly volatile political climate amid calls from within his own Democratic Party for the president to step down ahead of the 2024 election.
The embattled president is facing perhaps the most crucial moment of his political career as a growing number of critics from within his own party openly question his leadership. Supporters and skeptics alike say he needs to appear strong at a planned news conference on Thursday night after the NATO summit, his first major news conference since the debate. And with defections likely to mount in the coming hours, some Democrats have privately suggested they will not call on Biden to drop out of the race until world leaders have left Washington.
“The situation is getting worse,” said one House Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “I have a lot of respect for Joe Biden, but the situation is not good.”
Ahead of Biden’s Thursday press conference, the White House has been lobbying behind the scenes to keep Democrats on the ball. Biden dispatched his campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti to meet privately with Senate Democrats on Thursday afternoon. Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat who supports Biden as a candidate, told reporters that Biden’s team gave a “very strong presentation” and called the conversations “helpful.”
But the meeting did not convince everyone: “We have different views on how to proceed to defeat former President Trump,” Hassan said.
Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado has expressed concern about Biden being the front-runner but has not called for him to resign. “If things continue as they are, there’s a good chance Donald Trump will win the election and we’ll lose the Senate and the House,” he told reporters on his way to the meeting. (Not all Senate Democrats attended the meeting; the two most vulnerable, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana, have remained publicly silent about Biden’s chances and were absent.)
The rifts within the party have especially widened this week after Biden’s longtime ally, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggested in a television interview on Wednesday that he had not yet decided whether to run, despite the president’s assurances that he would continue to campaign. A dozen Democrats have so far called on the 81-year-old Biden to step down as the party’s nominee, including Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, who wrote an op-ed in Washington that “Mr. Biden should step down as the party’s nominee.” post He said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris would be a capable successor.
The unrest within the party comes on the heels of Biden’s disastrous debate performance, in which concerns about his age and mental health were raised and many feared he may have irreparably damaged his reelection chances. Social Media Posts On Thursday morning, he said dismissing Biden’s debate performance as a “terrible night” “reflects a continuing pattern of denial and self-deception.”
Several Democrats in both houses of Congress told TIME that Biden, a former senator, should negotiate directly with lawmakers to address their concerns. Sen. Tim Kaine, who is running for reelection in Virginia, said he’s “talked to people in the White House, but not to President Biden,” adding that hearing directly from Biden “would be helpful.”
A majority of Democrats feel Biden should withdraw his candidacy, according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released Thursday. Others said Harris would fare slightly better as the top choice. Unrest continues among Democrats who worry Biden’s candidacy could lead to a crushing defeat in November’s election. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report this week moved six key Electoral College battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, from close to Republican. Since the debate, Biden’s approval rating has fallen to about 37% in an average of 538 polls, his lowest level ever.
As the pressure mounts, Biden has so far remained defiant, saying he would step aside only if “Almighty God” asked him to. Some polls show Biden still trailing Trump, and his campaign is optimistic he can make a comeback.
“No one will deny that the debate was a setback, but Joe Biden and this campaign have weathered setbacks before,” O’Malley Dillon and Chavez Rodriguez wrote in an internal memo to calm campaign staffers and obtained by TIME on Thursday. “We are clear about what we need to do to win, and we will do so by moving forward united as a party, with our focus now, every day through Election Day, on defeating Donald Trump.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, told TIME that it was a “good idea” for the Biden campaign to release data showing a path to victory. He said he hasn’t yet called on Biden to step down but was meeting with Biden’s advisers because he wanted to hear a playbook for the path forward.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, tasked with mediating the rising tensions, is in the middle of the storm. He told reporters on Thursday that he doesn’t think Biden is a burden to Democrats seeking reelection, but he didn’t directly answer a question about whether he thinks Biden should drop out of the presidential race. Jeffries said lawmakers should “have a conversation with their constituents” as they consider what to do next. His efforts to appease both sides highlight the fragility of the Democratic coalition at this unique political moment.
“Hakim wants to give everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions and express their concerns,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Maryland Democrat who is backing Biden for the nomination. “Not everyone is going to agree.”
As the crisis deepened, the influential Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) quickly emerged as a key defender of Biden, highlighting his longstanding support among black voters. But that sentiment appeared to shift as the week dragged on, with some members beginning to openly question Biden’s candidacy. “The Congressional Black Caucus and its members are not a monolith,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada and CBC chairman, told reporters Thursday. “We have consistently expressed, even to the president himself, the need for a restructuring of the campaign, a change in strategy, a change in how we invest in spending to win in November.”
Democratic opposition isn’t limited to Congress: Democratic megadonor and actor George Clooney wrote a critical op-ed in The New York Times. Times This week, he called on Biden to drop out of the race and lamented the president’s weakening performance compared to past years.
Biden has held on to a loyal base within the Democratic coalition. That tension was on full display in the Oval Office on Wednesday, when he sat down with Britain’s new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, after a meeting at the AFL-CIO headquarters. Biden couldn’t avoid a question about Clooney’s op-ed, responding to the nation’s hardcore pro-union base by calling for “Go AFL-CIO, go go.” The remarks speak to a growing clash between what Biden calls the “elite” donors and political hivemind within the Democratic Party and Biden’s base of unions and black voters.
After speaking with Biden on Wednesday, union leaders issued a unanimous statement of support, eliciting multiple standing ovations from the roughly 50 union leaders in the room. But while the Biden campaign was there, United Auto Workers President Sean Fain and Union of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson, both staunch Biden supporters, pressed the Biden campaign for more details about policies to stop Trump from winning the White House in November.
