After giving President Joe Biden some space to make the decision for himself, top Democrats on Capitol Hill are upping the pressure on the incumbent to withdraw from the race — and they, or their aides, are making sure reporters know about it.
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), the former House speaker, privately told Biden over the phone that current polling indicates he’ll lose to former president Donald Trump if he stays in the race, four sources briefed on the conversation told CNN. Pelosi also expressed concern that his refusal to drop out of the race could crush Democrats’ chances of retaking the House, which currently has a narrow Republican majority.
Biden responded defensively, saying he has seen polls that indicate he can win the election. Pelosi then asked Biden’s longtime adviser, Mike Donilon, to go over the data with the president.
The exact date of the phone call remains unclear, but sources indicate that it occurred within the last week.
While this marks the California Democrat’s second conversation with the president since his debate flop last month, she reportedly did not call for his withdrawal in the private conversation. However, the fact that Pelosi, a party elder who retains significant influence over the Democratic caucus, has not forcefully defended Biden in public speaks volumes.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe last week, Pelosi did not definitively say whether Biden should remain the Democratic nominee. “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,” she said last Wednesday.
After a brief pause following the assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday, Representative Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) on Wednesday joined the chorus of Democrats publicly calling on Biden to withdraw. Schiff is a close ally of fellow California Democrat Pelosi, and he likely would have consulted her before making the move, though Pelosi’s office denies receiving any advance warning.
Schiff’s statement came hours before the White House announced that Biden was retreating to his Delaware beach house to recover from Covid.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) have also had tough conversations with Biden about his viability over the weekend.
Schumer argued Saturday it would be best if Biden ended his reelection campaign during a private meeting in Delaware. Exact details of the conversation remain unknown, but a Schumer spokesperson told ABC News, “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus.”
The spokesperson later added that ABC’s reporting consisted of “idle speculation” but did not explicitly deny that Schumer had conveyed that Biden could not win in November.
“Unless ABC’s source is Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden, the reporting is idle speculation,” the spokesperson later added. “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”
Likewise, Jeffries privately suggested the incumbent should drop out of the race. “The letter sent by Leader Hakeem Jeffries to his House Democratic colleagues speaks for itself. It was a private conversation that will remain private,” a Jeffries spokesperson told ABC.
In the July 12 letter that was referenced, Jeffries did not explicitly say whether he urged Biden to step aside or to stay in the race. “In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together,” he wrote to House Democrats.
Concerning both Democratic leaders’ private conversations with the president, a White House spokesperson maintained Biden “is the nominee of the party” and that “he plans to win.”
At least 20 Democrats, including one senator, have so far publicly called on Biden to step aside and allow a different candidate to take his place atop the party’s ticket.
Some have speculated the replacement could be Vice President Kamala Harris, and it appears Biden is warming up to the idea. As the pressure from top Democratic allies mount, Biden has become more “receptive” to leaving the 2024 ticket and has been asking if Harris can win the election after previously saying that “Kamala can’t win,” CNN reported.
Harris and other alternative Democratic contenders all led Biden by an average of three points among 15,000 voters across seven swing states, according to a BlueLabs Analytics polling memo distributed to the Democratic Party this week. The following four candidates outperformed Biden by roughly five points: Senator Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), Maryland governor Wes Moore, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.
“Nearly every tested Democrat performs better than the President. This includes Vice President Kamala Harris who runs better than the President,” the survey concluded.
A CNN poll from earlier this month showed Harris outperforming Biden and other Democratic contenders, including California governor Gavin Newsom, in a hypothetical matchup with Trump. She trailed the Republican nominee by two points in that poll.
Biden is also slipping in national polls, as more Democratic lawmakers join the calls for him to step down. The latest RealClearPolitics polling average has Biden down by 2.5 percentage points against Trump.