As President Joe Biden’s campaign leaders are set to meet with Democratic senators on Thursday to ease concerns about his health and mental acuity to be president, House Democrats are fuming that they have not been granted the same opportunity.
Biden has historically been a Senate guy, having served there for 36 years. But some House members say he’s overlooking a huge block of Democrats who also need their consciences calmed about his ability to serve for another four years — and Democratic House members are taking note.
One House Democrat described Biden and his team’s outreach as “shockingly sluggish,” especially as more House members began to voice their opposition to Biden staying on the top of the ticket.
“For two weeks, there have been persistent concerns about the president as the top of the ticket. One would think the president would meet with the Democratic caucus at large,” this member told NOTUS.
While the president has been hosting a NATO summit all week and has had a packed public schedule, he spoke to members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday night to help rally support. But the rest of the House Democratic caucus has gone largely ignored, barring a handful of calls to individual members.
Even his meeting with the CBC didn’t alleviate all concerns within the group, with members of the caucus expressing to NOTUS that despite the public support from the group, some members still want him to end his campaign.
Other groups, such as the Congressional Progressive Caucus, have wanted to meet with Biden, with the chair of the caucus, Pramila Jayapal, telling CBS News on Wednesday that she expects Biden will meet with her group this week.
However, the calls for Biden or his advisers to meet with the whole caucus have been prominent for the past two weeks and have gone largely ignored, another House Democrat told NOTUS.
“I know of a dozen colleagues who have openly and publicly called for the president to come to our caucus, called for a briefing, you know, it’s a chorus,” this member said.
As to why that hasn’t happened, they have no idea.
“The charitable explanation is they got a few things on their plate. Is there more to it than that, you know,” the member concluded, shrugging their shoulders.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Thursday that he’s listening to every member of the House Democratic Caucus and then after that “we’ll convene as a leadership team and figure out the next step.”
Biden and his team’s decision to largely ignore the House is confusing to some members, mostly because 10 of the current 11 Democrats in Congress publicly calling for him to step down are in the House.
Earlier on Thursday, Michigan Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten became the 11th Democrat to call on Biden to step out of the race.
“For the good of our democracy, I believe it is time for him to step aside from the presidential race and allow a new leader to step up,” Scholten said in a statement.
This comes as Biden has repeatedly said that he plans to stay in the race, rejecting all calls to drop out and emphasizing in public and in a letter to members of Congress that he is not going anywhere.
But members don’t want to believe him.
“I think he’s gonna make a decision. I think he’s still working on that, and we’ll see,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic House majority leader, told reporters on Thursday.
When Hoyer was pressed and told that Biden has said he’s made a decision and plans to stay in the race, Hoyer declined to comment further.
Biden and his campaign are hoping his press conference Thursday night will go smoothly and help ease some of the concerns members on the Hill have been expressing.
But House Democrats are not so confident.
“The cake is baked,” Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley, who has called on Biden to withdraw, told reporters.
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.