Congressional Democrats returned to Washington this week with a terrible case of political heartburn over what to do with Joe Biden. It’s no secret that many Democrats, including some bigwigs in the party, want Joe to bow out. Jill Biden won’t permit that, so the party is purgatory. Democratic governors back Biden for now, though for purely selfish and political reasons—they want to stop any talk of Kamala 2028, and her replacing Biden could make that a reality. Megadonors and Hill Democrats overall feel differently.
Swing state House Democrats held a dirge of their own before the official meeting yesterday, where some voices who wanted Biden to drop out, like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), have come back into the fold, likely at gunpoint. Overall, the feeling for some was reportedly like a funeral. Some even broke down in tears as the Democrats’ high election hopes got obliterated during Biden’s atrocious debate with Donald Trump on June 27. Over at the Senate, their lunch saw Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) again back Joe. However, some voices said that Biden can’t win, like Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), whose remarks got leaked, leading to his lengthy interview on CNN where he said, among other things, that his party is poised to lose the whole show—White House, House, and Senate—if Biden remains on the ticket.
Large swaths want Biden to go but won’t do anything. In the words of Donald J. Trump, it’s all talk, no action with congressional Democrats, though some have taken their dump Biden fantasies to some pretty dark corners. The New York Times reported that some party loyalists who want to dump the president are hoping for another mental episode to pressure him to leave the race. It would make their case ironclad. It could also destroy the entire party this cycle (via NYT):
Longtime party loyalists said they were now reduced to hoping for another major public misstep by Mr. Biden, such as a serious stumble at his NATO news conference, to either persuade reticent members of Congress to speak out or to convince the president that he should leave the race on his own.
The stance struck the lone-wolf Democrats who have stuck their necks out to publicly call for Mr. Biden to step aside as preposterous — and even dangerous.
“The idea that we are going to slow-walk into fascism because we don’t want to hurt somebody that we respect’s feelings — I cannot even begin to tell you how angry that makes me,” said Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee and one of seven House Democrats to publicly call on Mr. Biden to step aside.
Privately, vulnerable Democrats who represent competitive districts were panicking that there appeared to be no plan to pressure Mr. Biden out of what they expected to be a losing proposition for all of them. Behind closed doors, there was a consensus forming among the members in the toughest House seats that Democrats would have a much better shot of winning the majority with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.
Their position was expressed privately to Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, who was still in listening mode on Tuesday, debating how to proceed.
What a circus. Not that I care about the Democrats, but it’s dubious that Kamala Harris would make for a stronger Democratic Party candidacy. The Cook Political Report noted the metrics aren’t there. If we’re going by polling, Trump still beats her, with a margin that would likely widen since Harris is a terrible candidate, unpopular, and known for being awkward and unprepared during public events. She reportedly does not read briefings prepared by her beleaguered staff.
Editorial cartoonist Rick McKee’s take. pic.twitter.com/HLuIOcYvlH
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) July 9, 2024
What the American people saw during the debate was not a stutter OR merely misspeaking.
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) July 9, 2024
Privately, Dems acknowledge this. But here’s the company line -> https://t.co/wpmfQBFdtU
NEW:
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 9, 2024
Trump +3 against Joe Biden
Trump + 6 against Kamala Harris
They’re stuck https://t.co/tkPSOIW2ZH
Even before the June 27 debate, it finally came to light: this 2020 ticket was bad, a Frankenstein-like creature because it was never meant to win. With no COVID pandemic, Biden-Harris likely get trounced handily by Trump. And with the pandemic over, you’re seeing a picture of what things might have been; one needs to add Trump’s booming economy: six key battleground states are trending toward Trump, including Pennsylvania, where private polls from Democrats and Republicans show Trump expanding his lead over Biden by between four and ten points. That’s a landslide win in the Keystone State and a flip that could kill Biden’s re-election hopes.
Biden was never the guy. He ran twice and lost, with Obama not even enthused by his candidacy. We knew he was unqualified. Now, you’re seeing it peppered with a healthy helping of dementia.