President Biden is facing growing calls to withdraw from the top of his party’s ticket ahead of a press conference on Thursday the White House hopes might reassure Democrats that he is ready to campaign and win in November.
At times on Thursday it appeared the walls were closing in on Biden and his campaign, with reports by NBC News and The New York Times that even campaign aides were casting doubt about his path to victory.
“I think the biggest question now is when does this happen? Not if,” said one campaign surrogate.
TJ Ducklo, a Biden campaign spokesperson, called it “patently false” that some advisers were discussing how to get Biden to drop out. “This team stands with the president,” Ducklo posted on the social platform X.
Biden himself has given no indication he plans to bow out. The Biden campaign on Thursday circulated an internal memo, which was obtained by The Hill, adamant that only Biden can beat former President Trump.
It argued polls that show other Democrats doing better than Biden against Trump are “unreliable.”
Democrats outside the White House argued morale is falling.
“It seems very much like the 11th hour. Morale is at an all-time low. I haven’t seen it this bad,” one campaign surrogate told The Hill.
Another Democratic source said it appeared the Biden team was trying to buy time to reassure allies or run out the clock before the August convention by scheduling events like Monday’s prime-time interview with NBC and trips to Texas and Nevada next week. The president is scheduled to campaign in Michigan on Friday before heading to Delaware for the weekend.
The more robust schedule has done little to calm jitters among Democrats on Capitol Hill, and some Democrats have hinted the dam may soon break.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said on CNN he did not know if Biden would be the party’s candidate next week.
“Events are unfolding very fast,” he said. “I want to create space for the president and the White House to make a careful, reflective and patriotic decision.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) suggested there was little Biden could do at this point to salvage his image after a disastrous debate performance.
“Neither the press conference tonight nor the NBC interview on Monday evening will offer the President the political salvation he seems to be seeking,” Torres wrote Thursday on X.
A dozen Democratic lawmakers so far have publicly called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race.
“Momentum’s building towards pushing him to reconsider,” a Democratic bundler told The Hill.
A Democratic strategist close to the campaign said: “The pressure at this point is just excruciating, and they know it. This is like submarine-depth water.”
The press conference, said one donor who spoke with a campaign official on Thursday, is “a Hail Mary pass for Biden.”
“They know they can’t survive this,” the source said.
Multiple Democrats have predicted there will be additional calls for Biden to drop out of the race at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., this week.
The turmoil comes just days after Biden appeared to quiet calls for him to step aside with an all-out blitz. He sent a letter Monday to congressional Democrats stating he was “firmly committed” to remaining in the race, huddled virtually with the Congressional Black Caucus and earned statements of support from some of his close allies.
But those public declarations of support seem to have largely dried up in the last 48 hours.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) left the door open to the possibility that Biden could change his mind about running, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) became the first Senate Democrat to call on Biden to step aside, and actor George Clooney wrote a New York Times op-ed urging Biden to get out of the race just weeks after hosting a fundraiser for the president.
Some Democrats remain reticent in calling for Biden to withdraw, saying they want him to make the call on his own and on the most favorable terms possible for the party. And there are also Democrats who still think a damaged Biden poses less of a risk than the mess of replacing him.
“There’s a division of opinion as to what the best outcome is, and there’s also a division of opinion as to how to go about achieving what people think the best outcome is,” one Democratic lawmaker told The Hill. “At the end of the day, this has to be the president’s decision, and that’s why I think you’re seeing different approaches.”
Some of Biden’s top advisers met with Democratic senators on Thursday, and after the meeting, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) described the mood as “constructive, serious, frank.”
“I need to hear and see more of the analytics and the data that show a path to victory. But as the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, continues to have my support, my concerns remain. More important than my concerns, Joe Biden needs to address the questions that have been raised by the American people,” he said.
Other Democrats appear to be losing patience.
“If things stay as they are, it’s likely that Donald Trump will win the election and that we’ll lose the Senate and we’ll lose the House,” said Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.).
The campaign’s internal memo fought back on the suggestion that another candidate would do better than Biden.
It also called the debate a “setback,” pointed to an ABC/Ipsos poll on Thursday that showed Biden and Trump tied, and outlined that the path to victory most clear for Biden is winning Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump. Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter,” the memo said. “The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.”
Al Weaver contributed to this report.