President Joe Biden reiterated to House and Senate Democrats on Monday that he will not step aside and argued that it’s time for the party drama “to end,” as both chambers reconvene this week.
“Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” he wrote in a two-page letter to Hill Democrats.
The president also called into the MSNBC talk show, Morning Joe, on Monday to challenge his critics within the party.
“The bottom line here is we’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere,” Biden told co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, telling his detractors to “challenge me at the convention.”
Despite mounting criticism of his reelection campaign, Biden maintains that he’s the “best person” to defeat former president Donald Trump this fall. His pitch focuses largely on the threat Trump allegedly poses to democracy. In his Monday letter, Biden argued that Trump and his supporters are “siding with the wealthy and the big corporations” and will ban abortion access nationwide should Trump return to the White House.
“We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election,” Biden wrote. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”
The letter comes after four senior House Democrats called on him to step aside during a private call with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) on Sunday.
Representatives Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), Joe Morelle (D., N.Y.), Adam Smith (D., Wash.), and Mark Takano (D., Calif.) forcefully urged Biden to drop out of the race during the two-hour call, sources with knowledge of the private discussion told Politico and other media outlets. The four lawmakers join the ranks of five other House Democrats who publicly called on Biden to withdraw within the past week: Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D., Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D., Ariz.), Seth Moulton (D., Mass.), Mike Quigley (D., Ill.), and Angie Craig (D., Minn.).
Following the incumbent’s poor debate performance, top Democrats and media commentators have become concerned that Biden is no longer fit to run for reelection due to his old age and cognitive decline. The private call with Jeffries was meant to address those concerns.
The call also included Representatives Jim Himes (D., Conn.), Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), Don Beyer (D., Va.) and Rick Larsen (D., Wash.). While refraining from calling for the president to leave the race, they voiced their fears about Biden potentially losing to Trump in the November election.
The latest statements against Biden’s reelection bid come as Congress reconvenes for the first time since Biden’s lackluster debate performance. With House Democrats already abandoning their party’s presumptive nominee, Senate Democrats could soon do the same as they return to Capitol Hill this week.
Senator Mark Warner (D., Va.) was expected to lead a Monday discussion with his colleagues about Biden’s path forward, but that meeting was reportedly canceled. Senate Democrats will meet during a regularly scheduled caucus meeting on Tuesday.
While Jeffries hosted the private call for Democrats to address the 81-year-old president’s viability, Biden campaigned in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania to try to reassure voters of his candidacy following the debate.
As his physical and mental condition worsen, Biden’s staffers have prepared documents with large text and photos intended to mask his limitations. One such document instructs the president how to enter a room at an event and comes complete with pictures. The White House sends event staffers a template to emulate when creating their own materials, sources tell Axios.
Major Democratic donors on Wall Street are also growing increasingly concerned about Biden’s viability, the New York Times reported. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, and Blackstone COO Jon Gray held discussions over the weekend with colleagues and friends about the best path forward for the party.
Instead of publicly abandoning Biden like some major Hollywood figures did in recent days, Wall Street donors are privately strategizing what a potential Biden exit would look like and how that might affect the Democratic Party as well as the race. For example, some executives believe Biden should not quit until he first becomes the nominee — the argument being that an open nominating convention could lead to intraparty strife and ultimately help Trump win.
Despite numerous calls for him to bow out of the race, Biden repeatedly insisted he will not leave. During an ABC News interview that aired Friday night, he told host George Stephanopoulos he would only end his campaign if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells him to do so.