Twelve more Democrats join chorus calling on Biden to exit race
One day after Republican convention, Democrats intensify calls for President to step aside while Vice-President Harris huddled with donors.
A surge of additional Democratic lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to abandon his re-election bid on Friday, signalling a snowballing campaign to replace Biden even as he and his advisers insist publicly that he has no plans to withdraw.
Ten House Democrats, including Zoe Lofgren of California, Marc Veasey of Texas and Greg Landsman of Ohio, all called on him to end his campaign. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) and Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) joined the group, bringing the tally to more than 30 congressional Democrats who have urged the president to remove himself from the top of the ticket.
Also Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris defended Biden during a contentious call with Democratic donors at a time when wealthy financiers feel misled by the President and are vowing to not give money to his campaign. The call abruptly ended before Harris would field any donor questions.
The burst of action by Democrats trying to oust Biden – and Harris’s scramble to shore up the President’s support – were the latest evidence of a party in peril, with prominent figures openly clashing over their election strategy. Biden and his senior aides are struggling to mount a counteroffensive that would salvage his campaign before the Democratic convention next month.
Meanwhile, many Democrats viewed former president Donald Trump’s meandering 90-minute speech at the Republican convention Thursday night as a sign that the party still has an opportunity to win in November if they make dramatic changes soon.
Complicating matters, Biden hasn’t made a public appearance since Wednesday, as he is isolating in Delaware while he recovers from Covid-19. His doctor, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a letter released by the White House that the President has a loose cough and hoarseness, but those symptoms had “improved meaningfully” since Thursday.
In a Friday statement, Biden said he planned to return to the campaign trail next week, where he would criticise Trump’s agenda, “while making the case for my own record and the vision that I have for America.” On the Friday donor call, Harris and others tried to tamp down a growing revolt. Harris vouched for Biden and told donors -- some of whom feel increasingly ignored by the campaign -- to compare Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention with what they know of Biden. “We know which candidate in this election puts the American people first: Our President, Joe Biden,” she said.
Harris added, according to a call participant, “We are going to win this election.” Field organisers from outside groups told the donors it was time to move on from their increasingly vocal push for Biden to end his campaign. “You’ve made your point,” one field organiser said, according to another person on the call.
Harris didn’t take questions. When donors tried to speak, the organiser quickly ended the call.
During a separate call with staff on Friday, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chair, dismissed opposition to the President remaining on the ticket and suggested that direct conversations with voters were more important than polls. She said Biden is hearing from people that want him to stay in the race. “Those voices will never be as loud as the people on TV, but remember that the people in our country aren’t watching cable news,” she said, according to a person familiar with her remarks.
Behind the scenes, some of Biden’s advisers expressed outrage that so many Democratic lawmakers and donors have turned on the President, arguing that they are abandoning a longtime friend and ally who has been counted out before and has proved doubters wrong in the past.
But that argument didn’t appear to be stemming the tide of opposition to the President. Several prominent Democratic donors said large contributions to the President had begun to dry up, and some of Biden’s strongest allies said privately that they believe he will have to step aside.
Some of the most senior Democratic lawmakers in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, have expressed concerns directly to Biden, with some of them warning that him remaining on the ticket could hurt Democrats running for re-election, according to people familiar with the discussions.
House Democrats who called on Friday for Biden to drop out include Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Sean Casten of Illinois, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, and Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico.
Several lawmakers who called on Biden to step aside on Friday were members of Capitol Hill coalitions that had largely continued to support the President, a sign that cracks are emerging even among his staunchest backers. Pocan, Huffman, McGarvey and Garcia are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, while Veasey is the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to call for him to drop out.
In a joint statement addressed to Biden, Reps. Pocan, Huffman, Garcia and Veasey said that “widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardising what should be a winning campaign.” In an interview, Landsman acknowledged this is an excruciating moment for the party. He said he doesn’t know exactly what the next steps would be if Biden withdraws, and he understands that’s nerve-racking for many Democrats.
“That’s an open question and I know that makes a lot of people nervous and that uncertainty is difficult for a lot of folks, which is completely understandable,” Landsman said. “I have faith in us, I do.’” Lofgren, a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), sent a letter on Thursday to Biden stating that she is especially concerned about a second Trump presidency after serving on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
“Simply put, your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot,” she said.
Heinrich, meanwhile, is the chairman of Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. “While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside,” he said.
Brown, who is campaigning in one of the toughest Senate races this fall, said he wants full attention on the top issues Ohio residents have raised with him. “I think the President should end his campaign,” said Brown, who chairs the powerful Senate Banking Committee. Four Democratic senators have now called on Biden to quit the race.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.), who had previously called on Biden to step aside, wrote in an op-ed in the Boston Globe on Friday that Biden didn’t recognise him when they saw each other in Normandy, France, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Other lawmakers dug in, asserting their support for Biden. On Friday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) said she remains “all in” backing the President. “President Biden’s done an amazing job in working on a bipartisan basis to get meaningful things done,” Gillibrand said in Albany, N.Y.
Sen. Chris Coons, one of Biden’s closest allies in Congress, said Friday morning during a panel at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, “I think our president is weighing what he should weigh, which is: Who is the best candidate to win in November and to carry forward the Democratic Party’s values and priorities in this campaign.” Coons, who is a co-chairman of the President’s campaign, added that he is being bombarded with people offering advice about what Biden should do next.
Later Friday, Coons clarified on Twitter, “I’m with him 100% because I know he can beat Trump just like he did last time.” Biden’s allies hope Trump’s Thursday night speech accepting the Republican nomination for president will galvanise support for the president. Trump’s speech started off on a note of unity but then shifted into more hard-line rhetoric on crime and immigration.
“I think we saw on display last night exactly why because Donald Trump is not going to offer anything new to the American people,” O’Malley Dillon said on MSNBC. “We see the path forward,” she added, calling Biden “the best person to take on Donald Trump and prosecute that case and present his vision versus what we saw last night.” The Biden campaign is planning additional fundraisers in the coming days. First lady Jill Biden is scheduled to hold a fundraiser in Paris on July 25, ahead of the start of the Olympic Games, according to an invitation for the event viewed by the Journal.
The intraparty warfare comes roughly a month before the Democratic National Convention, which is set to be held in Chicago. Amid a swell of concern among some Democrats that the party was moving too quickly to nominate Biden, the DNC’s rules committee met Friday to discuss a virtual nomination process. No votes were taken on a final plan, and the committee is expected to meet again in the coming days.
The rules committee has discussed a virtual nomination process that could begin in August, a few weeks before the start of the convention. DNC officials have said that timeline is intended to meet a potential deadline of Aug. 7 for ballot access in Ohio. Though Ohio officials passed a law extending that deadline, DNC officials have said the party still needs to file its nominations by Aug. 7 because the law doesn’t take effect until September. Not doing so could result in legal action, they argue.
– Ken Thomas , Catherine Lucey, Annie Linskey, Lindsay Wise and Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.
WSJ
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