The assassination attempt on former President Trump, followed immediately by the kick-off of the Republican National Convention, had seemed to take the focus off of President Biden and Democratic angst over his ability to campaign effectively. The respite was short-lived.
CNN (“President Joe Biden tests positive for Covid-19 at pivotal moment in reelection campaign“):
President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, disrupting a key campaign event meant to shore up support with Latino voters at a critical juncture in the election.
Biden, 81, was experiencing mild symptoms and has received his first dose of the antiviral drug Paxlovid, according to his doctor.
“I feel good,” Biden, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, told reporters Wednesday in Las Vegas, flashing a thumbs-up before boarding Air Force One to head to his Delaware residence. The president will self-isolate there in line with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.
Biden and his aides have repeatedly cited recent stops on the campaign trail as a demonstration of his vigor as the presumptive Democratic nominee, an attempt to tamp down growing anxieties within the party. Wednesday’s event in Las Vegas – where he was expected to speak at the UnidosUS annual conference – was billed as an example of that direct engagement, in this case with a diverse coalition.
WaPo (“Jeffries, Schumer privately warned Biden he could imperil Democrats“):
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, in separate private meetings with President Biden last week, told him that his continued candidacy imperils the Democratic Party’s ability to control either chamber of Congress next year.
Jeffries (D-N.Y.) met with Biden on Thursday night at the White House, and Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with him on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Del. In the meetings, the congressional leaders discussed their members’ concerns that Biden could deprive them of majorities, giving Republicans a much easier path to push through legislation, according to four people briefed on the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks.
In a separate one-on-one conversation, a person close to Biden told the president directly that he should end his candidacy, saying that was the only way to preserve his legacy and save the country from another Trump term, the person said. Biden responded that he adamantly disagreed with that opinion and that he is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.
CNN (“Pelosi privately told Biden polls show he cannot win and will take down the House; Biden responded with defensiveness“):
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told President Joe Biden in a recent conversation that polling shows that the president cannot defeat Donald Trump and that Biden could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning the House in November if he continues seeking a second term, according to four sources briefed on the call.
The president responded by pushing back, telling Pelosi he has seen polls that indicate he can win, one source said. Another one of the sources described Biden as getting defensive about the polls. At one point, Pelosi asked Mike Donilon, Biden’s longtime adviser, to get on the line to talk over the data.
This phone call would mark the second known conversation between the California lawmaker and Biden since the president’s disastrous debate on June 27. While the exact date of the conversation was not clear, one source described it as being within the last week. Pelosi and Biden also spoke in early July.
None of the sources indicated whether Pelosi told Biden in this conversation that she believes the president should drop out of the 2024 race.
Pelosi has spent the weeks following the debate listening to concerns from her colleagues. Pelosi made waves when she said in an interview last week: “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”
LAT (“Rep. Schiff calls on Biden to drop out, citing ‘serious concerns’ that he can’t win“):
Rep. Adam B. Schiff has called on President Biden to drop out of the White House race, becoming the most prominent Democrat in Congress to do so.
Wednesday’s statement from Schiff — the heavy favorite in his U.S. Senate bid and a frequent guest on cable news — brought a jolt to an effort that had grown quieter after the weekend assassination attempt on former President Trump.
The Burbank congressman cited “serious concerns” about Biden’s ability to beat Trump in November.
He is the latest Democrat to call for the president of his own party to exit the race amid growing questions about Biden’s age and mental fitness to do the job — worries that became more public last month after a disastrous debate performance, in which the incumbent at times appeared confused.
In a statement reported first by The Times, Schiff said Biden “has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better.”
“But our nation is at a crossroads,” he said. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
ABC News (“Biden held ‘tense’ call with group of House Democrats over concerns he can’t win“):
On Saturday, roughly an hour before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump — President Joe Biden was in the midst of a heated phone call with moderate House Democrats.
The Zoom call, according to multiple sources, did not go well for the president.
The call was between the New Democrat Coalition, which includes a mix of nearly 100 moderate and some progressive-adjacent members, and President Biden, and focused mostly on members’ concerns about Biden’s ability to win the election.
One House Democrat on the call told ABC News that Biden was not prepared for questions, that he gave “rambling responses” without answering questions, and downplayed their concerns.
Members were largely dismayed with Biden’s presentation, lack of a strategy, and preparation for anticipated questions, according to sources.
A recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show podcast, “The Real Danger Within the Democratic Party of a Fundamental Crack-Up,” is a conversation between the host, who was an early advocate for dumping Biden, and his NYT colleague Jamelle Bouie, who is very much a skeptic. It highlight ssomething that’s rather clear from these reports: that the main impetus behind the effort is doubt as to whether he can campaign effectively, not whether he can govern effectively. Or, as Bouie puts it:
[I]f you’re going to look at simply what has the administration been doing, has it been dropping the ball on critical concerns to both it and the country, I don’t think it has been. And so Biden seems capable of governing. Is he capable of the performance of governing? I’m not so sure he is.
Indeed, since Klein’s argument for an open convention predates the debate performance, that’s very much what was driving him initially.
Alas, as the conversation goes on, it’s clear that the distinction is not as black and white as it may at first appear. As even Bouie acknowledges, it’s really impossible for us to know how much of the day-to-day running of the administration is being done by the President versus his staff.
To be clear, both Klein and Bouie vastly prefer a government run by Biden’s staff to one run by Donald Trump. As do I. I vastly prefer the instincts and competence of those surrounding Biden. But, of course, a Biden who can’t perform the public duties of President is unlikely to be able to mount an effective campaign to retain the office.
Rank-and-file Democrats agree with the party leadership on this as well.
AP (“Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to withdraw, new AP-NORC poll finds“):
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.
The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40% in an AP-NORC poll in February.
Biden, who previously stated that only the Lord Almighty could make him quit the race, has now expanded the aperture a wee bit.
NYT (“Biden Says He’d Consider Dropping Out if a ‘Medical Condition’ Emerged“):
President Biden said in an interview released on Wednesday that he would re-evaluate whether to stay in the presidential race if a doctor told him directly that he had a medical condition that made that necessary.
Mr. Biden has said repeatedly that none of his doctors have told him he has a serious medical condition. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, wrote after the president’s physical in February that Mr. Biden is “a healthy, active, robust, 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”
[…]
In an interview with Ed Gordon of BET News, Mr. Biden was asked if there was anything that would make him re-evaluate staying in the race.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Mr. Biden said.
The comment is the latest in a series of shifting explanations by the president about what might cause him to reconsider. In an interview with ABC News this month, Mr. Biden said he would drop out only if the “Lord almighty” told him to. At a news conference in Washington several days later, he said he would stay in the race unless aides came to him with proof that he could never win.
In the BET interview, he conceded that he “made a serious mistake in the whole debate” and would re-evaluate his decision if one of his doctors changed their assessment of him.
Mr. Biden also said for the first time that he had expected to “move on” from the presidency and “pass it on to somebody else” but decided to run again because he believed his “wisdom” and experience would help heal the country’s worsening divisions.
Honestly, I had some hope of that as well. I believe he gave it an honest effort but, alas, it takes two to tango and few in the opposition party were willing to cooperate.
Whether he still has the capacity to govern, I don’t know. I’m highly skeptical that a man who can’t communicate in public can run the country. But there’s just no indication that he’s inclined to step aside and there’s nobody who can make him.
