As more elected Democrats call for President Joe Biden to step down as the party’s nominee, every public appearance he makes before next month’s Democratic National Convention will double as a political test, strategists warn.
But next week’s Republican National Convention, during which former President Donald Trump will announce his vice presidential nominee, could provide Biden with a respite from the pressure. Already, attention has turned from his political struggles following an apparent attempt to assassinate Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Democrats concerned about Biden’s chances against Trump this election have until Aug. 19 to convince him to stand aside as the presumptive nominee who controls almost all of the party’s delegates, with Biden’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday representing his next test and counterprogramming for first night of the Republican convention. That is potentially another month of Democrats criticizing their own candidate and helping Republicans cut ads before November, strategists say.
The fact that Trump and his campaign are “just sitting and laughing at all of this is infuriating,” according to one of those Democratic strategists, Jim Manley, a long-time aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Trump has underscored that Biden is his preferred rival this fall.
“What’s going is not sustainable — and the idea that every few days there is a new threshold that he is going to have to meet is ridiculous,” Manley told the Washington Examiner. “He met the low bar that was set last night, but what’s next? House and Senate Democratic leaders need to make a decision one way or another and act as quickly as possible.”
To that end, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) met with Biden Thursday night after the president’s highly anticipated press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit in Washington and “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the caucus has shared in our recent time together,” per his letter to other House Democrats. The White House and Biden campaign confirmed the sit-down but did have their own read-outs.
The Biden-Jeffries meeting also took place on the same day of a report that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told donors since Biden’s debate against Trump last month that he is open to replacing the president as the Democratic nominee, in addition to three of Biden’s most trusted advisers failing to win over Senate Democrats worried about the president’s electoral prospects during a separate briefing.
Schumer later revealed that he had a meeting of his own with Biden on Saturday, simply calling it a “good meeting” in a brief statement.
“I need more of the kind of analytics that show the path to success,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told reporters after the Senate meeting. “Joe Biden has to go to the American people — not just in one meeting, one press conference, one speech — but consistently and constantly. Tonight will be important. The press conference will be potentially a turning point.”
The shooting at Trump’s rally, in which a bullet appeared to graze the former president but he avoided major injury, has consumed headlines and will likely carry into the convention when it begins on Monday. Lawmakers have major questions about the security lapses that allowed the incident to happen, while the motives or identity of the shooter have not yet been revealed.
However, Biden has scheduled more than one interview during the convention, the NBC interview on Monday and a sitdown with BET on Wednesday, that could revive the political controversy over his fitness. A drip-drip of statements calling on him to step aside has dogged his campaign since the debate.
A Biden world source was emphatic that the president passed the test presented by this week’s press conference, organized in response to Democrats who have encouraged him to appear in more unscripted, less stage-managed moments. The source contended Biden not only reminded the public about his record and the other policies he would like to implement if he is reelected, but he also contrasted himself with Trump, despite mistaking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump. More than 22.5 million people watched Biden answer questions for an hour at the Walter E. Washington Center in downtown D.C., Nielsen Media Data found.
Although the source disliked the use of the word “test” and stressed that, as president of the United States, Biden is always under intense scrutiny, the person told the Washington Examiner he does have to prove his dynamism to Democratic critics. The pressure would only be eased during the Republican convention if Biden were not campaigning himself, but he will be, the source also asserted.
GOP operatives, such as Republican National Committee spokeswoman Anna Kelly, previewed the convention as a platform for Trump to appeal to people “across the political spectrum with his agenda to lower costs, secure the border, and restore peace through strength.”
“Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s weakness, failure, and dishonesty have made him one of the least popular presidents in history, and now, his disastrous record is only compounded by his clear cognitive decline,” Kelly told the Washington Examiner. “Americans won’t forget Biden’s daily gaffes and memory lapses, just like they won’t forget his failed record when they vote for President Trump on Nov. 5.”
With Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) telling Biden during Friday’s call between the president and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he should step aside as the Democratic nominee, 19 Democrats have now implored Biden to do the same. After speaking with top Democratic congressional allies, governors, and mayors, including the Congressional Black Caucus, the president also talked with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus on Friday, with plans to phone the Congressional Progressive Caucus and New Democrat Coalition on Saturday.
“The president has said repeatedly he is in this to win, he is the Democratic nominee, we’re going to defeat Donald Trump in November because Democrats are going to be united in taking down threats posed by Donald Trump,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One for the president’s trip to Michigan on Friday. “Joe Biden has been making gaffes for 40 years. He made a couple last night. He’ll probably continue to do so.”
After Michigan, a must-win battleground state, Biden heads to Texas on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin before travelling to Nevada. Once in the Silver State, the president will address the 115th NAACP National Convention on Tuesday and the UnidosUS Annual Conference on Wednesday as he makes his own appeals to voters.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the itinerary as an opportunity for Biden to speak directly to the country, particularly those who have not “heard specifically from him, on even his health, even the debate,” as well as a way for him to hear directly from them about their issues.
“That’s the best way to do this,” Jean-Pierre told reporters this week. “That’s the best way to get out there. That’s the best way to make sure that you have your finger on the pulse and that the American gets people get to see you for themselves.”