Top Democrats prepare for campaign without Joe Biden
Joe Biden has entered a perilous stretch in the presidential race as allies and donors began looking to a future where a new candidate sits atop the Democratic ticket.
President Joe Biden has entered a perilous stretch in his fight to remain in the presidential race as allies and donors began looking to a future where a new candidate sits atop the ticket, and his path to re-election faced scepticism from the party’s biggest names.
People close to top Democrats said on Thursday that it now appeared it was a matter of when – not if – Mr Biden bowed out of the presidential race.
In the last day or so, former president Barack Obama has told friends who have called him that Mr Biden’s path to victory is narrow, according to a person familiar with the calls.
Senior Democrats are actively planning next steps should Mr Biden decide to leave the ticket, people familiar with the discussions said.
Mr Biden was holed up at his Delaware vacation home on Thursday after testing positive for Covid-19 the previous day.
His frail appearance upon returning to Delaware and several stumbles in interviews earlier in the week sparked fresh concerns that he lacks the stamina and acuity to remain in the race and serve another term.
Mr Biden was on a course of Paxlovid to treat his Covid and experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms, according to a letter from his doctor.
On Wednesday, prominent Wall Street financiers and donors met in Manhattan and discussed not giving more money to any Democratic efforts until Mr Biden ends his candidacy, people familiar with the meeting said.
Donors for the last two weeks, including in recent days, have been telling Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, House of Representatives minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and former house speaker Nancy Pelosi hat they won’t give or that they won’t raise money for the presidential or for congressional races until Mr Biden drops out, the people said, emphasising that people are demoralised.
Some have been increasingly insistent that the lawmakers publicly call on Mr Biden to drop out and have been strategising on whom else to speak with who might be able to persuade Mr Biden.
Senator Schumer met Mr Biden at the President’s beach house in Delaware last weekend, and he told the President at the meeting that the current election trajectory would cost Democrats the Senate.
West Wing aides say that they have been kept in the dark about Mr Biden’s intentions as the President’s inner circle has shrunk.
But several, reached over the past 24 hours, are saying for the first time that Mr Biden’s grip on power is more tenuous than ever, and it felt like the beginning of the end of his candidacy.
The view is shared by Biden allies who are detecting a new tone from the President’s inner core of aides.
Steve Ricchetti, a longtime Biden adviser, initially was resistant to any polling or data showing Mr Biden as a drag on the ticket. But in at least one recent conversation, Mr Ricchetti has been more open and receptive to hearing a fuller assessment of the political landscape, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Mr Biden spent the past few days campaigning in Nevada and gave several uneven interviews. In one, with Black Entertainment Television, he had difficulty immediately recalling the name of his Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, referring to him as the “Black man’’.
Mr Biden has weathered political storms in the past. He finished a dismal fourth place in the 2020 Iowa caucuses, then dropped to fifth place in the subsequent New Hampshire primary before staging a comeback. His party faced headwinds in the 2022 midterm elections, but fared better than expected.
“He is not wavering on anything” said principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks during a news conference in Milwaukee on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention on Thursday morning.
“The President has made his decision. I don’t want to be rude but I don’t know how many more times we can answer that.”
On Wednesday, the Biden campaign launched a 60-second ad across swing states targeting Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, on abortion rights. It was the first new spot to go up since the campaign announced a pause in political advertising on Saturday after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
The Biden campaign noted there is a robust schedule in coming days, including a North Carolina rally that Vice President Kamala Harris headlined on Thursday along with the state’s Governor Roy Cooper. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is set to appear at an event in Arizona on Friday.
Mr Biden is scheduled to appear at fundraisers in California on July 26 and 27, and in Denver with Colorado Governor Jared Polis on July 28, according to invitations viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The campaign has also lined up fundraisers for Ms Harris, first lady Jill Biden and other surrogates later this month.
Ms Harris is expected to headline a fundraiser on Saturday in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and an event July 27 in Pittsfield in the same state, with performances by James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax.
One of the hosts of the Pittsfield event is former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. The first lady is scheduled to attend three fundraisers in Massachusetts and Maine in late July.
Other public figures close to Mr Biden signalled that he should get out of the race.
“It’s really incumbent on people around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the President, and help the man they love, and do the right thing,” said MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Thursday during his program, Morning Joe. The program is one the President is known to admire and frequently watch.
“This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out,” said Scarborough, who has been a key defender of Biden in the past.
Lindsay Wise, Andrew Restuccia, Anthony DeBarros, Rebecca Ballhaus and Ken Thomas contributed to this article.
The Wall Street Journal
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