Lots of Wink-Wink-Nudge-Nudging from High-Profile Democrats, Not a Lot of ‘Step Aside, Mr. President’

We’re now hearing a variation of the same line from high-profile Democrats on the hill: “I trust that Biden will make the right decision about staying in the race” — a decision he insists he has already made and announced repeatedly and adamantly since the debate.

Here’s former House speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday: “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short. . . . He is beloved, he is respected, and people want him to make that decision. . . . Whatever he decides, we go with.”

Here’s in-cycle senator Tim Kaine (D., Va.) speaking with NewsNation on Wednesday: “I have complete confidence that Joe Biden will do the patriotic thing for the country. And he’s going to make that decision. He’s never disappointed me.”

And here’s Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) speaking with reporters: “I am deeply concerned about Joe Biden winning this November because it is an existential threat to the country if Donald Trump wins. So I think that we have to reach a conclusion as soon as possible.”

You get the gist, and the list goes on. But here’s the rub: Biden has said over and over that he is staying in, including in a Monday letter to congressional Democrats that the “question of how to move forward has been well-aired for a week now” and that it’s time for this public airing of grievances “to end.” So the subtext of this wink-wink-nudge-nudging from high-profile Democrats is that they either do not believe that he has made a final decision or they simply refuse to accept that decision that he’s made and believe that this kind of pressure is the most effective strategy to push him out. But so far, this likely calculated wave of strongly worded hints hasn’t moved the needle — at least not yet.

Democrats are in a real bind. They know that if they call on Biden to step aside and he doesn’t, their comments can be easily clipped for Republican TV ads and hurt their own political standing down the line with donors, other lawmakers, and, of course, the White House. But keeping quiet runs the risk of their losing their own races and missing a crucial opportunity to move the needle before it’s too late.