House Democratic leaders came to President Joe Biden’s defense Tuesday, declaring him as the party’s presumptive nominee while also leaving the door open to a possible change and acknowledging Biden has work ahead to convince voters of his viability.
After a closed-door meeting between House Democrats on Tuesday morning, Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said the party emerged with “twin goals”: Preventing former President Donald Trump from being reelected and winning the House majority in November.
But while Aguilar said the party was united to defeat Trump, noting that Biden is the current nominee, however, he later said that House leadership supports the “Democratic nominee that will beat Donald Trump. That is the fact. That is where we are.”
Aguilar went on to say that he is “supporting the Democratic ticket” in 2024, leaving open the possibility for a switch in nominee, before lauding the Biden administration for its work over the last three years.
The Democratic leaders’ comments come after lawmakers met in a closed-door meeting to discuss concerns about Biden’s candidacy and a path forward as the party heads into November. Aguilar acknowledged concerns from lawmakers about the president after his debate performance, noting that even Biden knows he “did not have a good debate performance.”
When asked if Biden has done enough to assuage concerns from voters, Aguilar said, “We’ll see.”
“Let’s see the press conference. Let’s see the campaign stops. Let’s see all of this. because all of it is going to be necessary,” Aguilar said. “[Biden] knows that he has to be out there in people’s districts, out in the communities, out in these tough states. He knows that. And that’s what we’ll see in the days.”
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Following Biden’s lackluster debate performance combined with months of gaffes and mishaps, eyes turned to congressional Democrats on Capitol Hill this week to determine if they should throw a lifeline to the president’s political future. But Democratic lawmakers left the meeting with only one thing clear: No one is on the same page when it comes to Biden, but time may be running out to make a top-ballot switch before the party’s nominating convention in August.
Biden has insisted he will not be dropping out, arguing his worse-than-expected performance was due to his busy travel schedule and intense preparation for the debate. In his ABC interview Friday, Biden said it would take divine intervention from “the Lord Almighty” to withdraw from the race.