A rough work week for President Joe Biden concluded with congressional and donor defections, a continuing sickness with COVID-19, and new disastrous data.
Following his now-infamous debate performance last month, Biden has struggled to suppress concerns over the viability of his candidacy. While the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday drew news attention away, the crisis resumed in earnest on Tuesday when Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) called on Biden to step down. Friday saw the screws tighten as cascading blows cast further doubt on his candidacy.
While Biden’s campaign said after Trump’s Republican National Convention speech that the president is “more determined than ever,” that determination doesn’t appear to be having an effect on his party.
Here’s a rundown of Biden’s bad day, and what it may mean for the weeks to come:
Congressional defections
Friday saw the single largest surge of defections among Democratic congressmen — 13 in all, including 11 representatives and two senators, called on Biden to step down.
These included Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Reps. Sean Casten (D-IL), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), and Gabe Vasquez (D-NM).
Notably, Lofgren is a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who is reported to be working behind the scenes to pressure a Biden ouster.
“Simply put, your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot,” Lofgren said. “It is for these reasons that I urge you to step aside from our Party’s nomination to allow another Democratic candidate to compete against and beat Donald Trump in the November election.”
The list of defectors also included the first Congressional Black Caucus member in Veasey, complicating Biden’s argument that it is mostly white “elites” who want to oust him, while minority voters want him to stay.
After Friday, there are now 35 congressional Democrats calling on Biden to drop out of the presidential contest, with little sign that the stream will be cut off.
Bad polls
An Emerson College poll published on Thursday but gaining wider attention on Friday, taken after the Trump assassination attempt, showed Trump once again trouncing Biden in every swing state. It also found a majority of voters believed Biden should drop out of the race.
Other polls found Biden’s lead falling drastically among key minority groups, whom he has relied on to shore up his candidacy. Despite taking 95% of the black female vote in 2020, just 70% said they would vote for him in 2024 in a Data for Progress poll.
A majority of black voters in swing states said they favor Vice President Kamala Harris running at the top of Democrats’ ticket over Biden.
Bad optics
Press reports have played a critical part in withering Biden’s candidacy, with several major Democrats leaking conversations in order to apply public pressure on him to drop out.
This continued on Friday, with an NBC report claiming that, for the first time, Biden’s family began discussing a calculated exit plan. Two people reportedly familiar with the conversations told the outlet that the main concerns were putting the party in the best place to defeat Trump while also securing Biden’s legacy.
Despite growing reports that Biden may be more amenable to an exit plan, Biden’s team has fervently denied this. In a Friday memo obtained by NBC News, Biden’s team reaffirmed his commitment to stay in the race.
“Joe Biden has made it more than clear: he’s in this race and he’s in it to win it. Moreover, he’s the presumptive nominee, there is no plan for an alternative nominee,” the memo read.
“In a few short weeks, Joe Biden will be the official nominee. It is high past time we stop fighting one another,” the memo said. “The only person who wins when we fight is Donald Trump.”
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Billionaire Democratic donor Michael Moritz’s demand for Biden to step down from the top of the presidential ticket was perhaps the worst bit of news for the president on Friday, with the megadonor pledging to withhold all his funding for the party until Biden is removed.
Biden has a choice, “Vanity or virtue,” Moritz said in an email to the New York Times. “He can either condemn the country to dark and cruel times or heed the voice of Father Time. The clock has run out.”
