Democratic leaders signaled in their most direct terms this week that they’re prepared to leak their private conversations with President Joe Biden until he drops out of the 2024 race. And, as of Thursday, the pressure — and the leaks — were only mounting.
To use a military saying of unknown origin: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Democrats told NOTUS on Thursday that members are holding back from an all-out jailbreak from the president, but enough lawmakers are preparing to call on Biden to step aside in the coming days so that the president gets the point.
“It is building to a head this weekend, and we should have movement,” one House Democrat told NOTUS on Thursday. “So I think many members, out of respect for Biden, will likely wait, but a few will not because, you know, I think what they don’t want is to create any perception by Biden that the opposition is over.”
This lawmaker noted that Biden has seemed to get the message before that he has to step down as the Democratic nominee — only to ignore the opposition and forge ahead. That is why more lawmakers are preparing to go public in the coming days unless Biden indicates he will drop out.
“We could get some signal from the White House that, you know, they’re preparing a major announcement or something like that, and then everything would freeze,” this Democrat said. “But, you know, short of that, I think there will continue to be some forward motion by members of Congress who want to maintain pressure.”
By Thursday evening, the pressure indeed started mounting. Rep. Jim Costa of California joined the ranks of House Democrats to call on Biden to step aside. And then Sen. Jon Tester of Montana joined the party.
Bloomberg News reported Thursday night that members of Biden’s cabinet have begun discussing whether it’s time for the president to remove himself from the ticket, and more details emerged about how former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pressuring Biden to step down.
Pelosi apparently challenged the president about his polling numbers when he claimed he could still win the race, and she has told some Democrats she thinks Biden is exiting the race fairly soon, according to The Washington Post.
Ominously, the Biden campaign scheduled an all-hands meeting for Friday.
While the president and his team endured the most intense pressure campaign in the last 24 hours to get him to drop out, Vice President Kamala Harris was on the campaign trail in North Carolina, stumping for him at a prescheduled rally. Harris was met at the tarmac by the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, who pundits have theorized would be a welcome option to be Harris’ vice president should she become president.
But Harris continues to maintain her distance from the replacement chatter.
One source close to the vice president said Harris has told advisers she won’t make any moves preparing for a campaign until Biden declares that he’s out. This source added that Biden has recently become more open to the arguments that he should exit the race.
Even if he’s still at the listening stage, Biden’s hand may soon be forced. Biden megadonor John Morgan, who has repeatedly expressed confidence in Biden and his campaign since the debate, acknowledged the shifting sands around Biden.
Something changed, Morgan said, when Rep. Adam Schiff — almost certainly the next California senator — called for Biden to quit his campaign on Wednesday.
“The end is near,” Morgan texted NOTUS on Thursday. “There comes a tipping point in all things..then that tipping point becomes an avalanche.”
“Adam Schiff is the snowflake that will have triggered the avalanche,” he added, clarifying that he isn’t calling Schiff a snowflake in the derogatory sense, but rather that “he is the smartest person in the House. And Pelosi’s proxy.”
It’s true that Schiff urging Biden to get out of the race has been widely interpreted as a warning shot from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi — though Pelosi denied any coordination with Schiff.
But it’s increasingly clear where the former speaker stands on Biden’s candidacy. CNN reported Wednesday evening that Pelosi privately told Biden he can’t beat former President Donald Trump and could tank Democrats’ ability to retake the House in November.
The leak about Pelosi’s conversation was one of several involving congressional leadership Wednesday. ABC News reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited Biden Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to urge the president to drop out and that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Biden at the White House to tell him to end his campaign
By Thursday, The Washington Post reported that former President Barack Obama told allies it looks increasingly unlikely that Biden can hang on to the White House.
“When senior political leaders make statements that leave the door ajar, their expectation is that the person walks through the door,” former Schumer staffer and executive vice president of think tank Third Way Jim Kessler texted NOTUS.
As the replacement drama has unfurled since the debate, the Congressional Black Caucus has been heralded as the most supportive bloc for Biden on Capitol Hill. But now, even the president’s strongest allies are starting to concern themselves more not with whether Biden will step down but with who will step in.
“I’ve been worried,” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a member of the CBC, texted NOTUS. Kamlager-Dove fears, like many other CBC colleagues, that Democrats will skip over Harris, who would be the nation’s first-ever Black female Democratic nominee — and possibly the first female president.
“I do hope the same people pushing Biden out recognize the wrath they will face from Black people everywhere if they disrespect her,” she said.
As Biden’s grip on the Democratic nomination becomes looser, all signs are pointing to his exit sooner rather than later. In fact, another House Democrat who spoke with NOTUS said, “Hardly anyone believes he can win anymore.”
“He’s not going to hang around much longer,” this person said. “He just can’t. If he tries to make it another week, I expect a huge break. The polling just isn’t there. The money isn’t there.”
At this point, some members believe Biden’s COVID-19 case may be the biggest obstacle to his dropping out. As this Democrat suggested, Biden may want one final speech solidifying his legacy and passing the torch to Harris. And if he’s not in a condition to go before the American people for that kind of address — and if he doesn’t signal that he plans to step aside before — the public break of Democrats from Biden could get much uglier.
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Matt Fuller, who is Capitol Hill bureau chief at NOTUS, contributed to this report.