With a long-anticipated press conference and campaign officials meeting with Senate Democrats, Thursday marks a crucial moment for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign to either build support in Congress or see more members call for him to get out of the campaign.
A small number of House Democrats and one senator — Peter Welch of Vermont — have called on Biden to step aside. They were joined Thursday morning by Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Democrat in a highly competitive district in Michigan. “It’s time to pass the torch,” she said in a statement. A larger bloc of congressional Democrats has taken a “wait and see” approach to Biden. They want to understand what the path to victory is in November and see Biden out more publicly. Privately, more Democrats have said that a stumble would sway them toward a public statement.
Rep. Mike Quigley, one of the House Democrats who has publicly called for Biden to leave the race, said he’s expecting more Democrats to follow suit. He said he knows some of his colleagues have been waiting, not wanting to distract from the ongoing NATO conference.
“You’ll hear more people today,” he said Thursday morning, leaving for his flight after House votes.
He also told NOTUS he doesn’t see Biden’s press conference as a way for Biden to build confidence among his colleagues.
“It’s a mistake to think that one day can make all the difference,” he said. “One day can only make things worse.”
Democratic senators will meet Thursday at the DSCC with senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon. Democrats in both chambers are looking to Biden’s solo press conference Thursday night, his first since November of last year, for an indication of where his campaign stands two weeks after the debate.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has publicly backed the president, but behind closed doors to donors, he’s open to a ticket without Biden, Axios reported.
The press conference is coming at a crucial moment. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that it’s up to Biden “to decide if he is going to run.” Biden has repeatedly and adamantly said he will remain in the race, yet Pelosi’s comments suggest she wants him to reevaluate that decision.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat in a safe district in New York, said in a statement Thursday that there’s no single thing Biden can do to eliminate concerns.
“The President did not just have one ‘bad debate.’ The reality we saw with our own lying eyes is evidence of a deeper challenge,” he said. “The notion that the President is going to be saved by this interview or that press conference misses the forest for trees.”
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been meeting with various Democratic caucuses. He met Wednesday with the New Democrat Coalition, a centrist branch that includes many frontline members. Rep. Brad Schneider, a vice chair of the coalition, said it was a “constructive meeting,” where he made the point that Democrats have two paths.
“One path is resign to where things are now and slog to the end. Or where we need to get back to is talking about what we’ve achieved, where we want to go, a vision where we believe in the future and we run to the finish line,” he said. “And we have to do whatever it takes to get to that second path.”
When NOTUS asked if that path includes Biden, Schneider wouldn’t answer. Hours later, he issued a statement calling on Biden to end his campaign.
For others who have already come out publicly against Biden, the press conference tonight is too little, too late.
“Won’t be watching tonight. I’ll be busy,” Rep. Jared Golden said.
In hindsight, some Democrats say they wish the party hadn’t quashed a real primary process for this election. Biden didn’t have to debate Democratic opponents — and show his ability to simply share a compelling campaign trail message — earlier, because the party shut down dissent and rallied around him so forcefully.
“Everyone wishes now that we had had primaries and that the president had been out there more, and that we had had an opportunity to see exactly what was there before this debate,” Rep. Marc Veasey told NOTUS.
“Moving forward from this experience,” he said of how the party scrutinizes its candidates, “things are never going to be the same again.”
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Casey Murray contributed additional reporting.