Democrats were in apparent gridlock on Saturday, a week after the party took stunning action to oust the president in favor of a candidate many hoped for while a recalcitrant Joe Biden continued to endure A high-profile call to end his re-election campaign.
In the weeks since his poor performance in the debate with Trump, the 81-year-old Biden has tried to fend off calls to step down as the top candidate amid concerns about his age and mental acuity. No more qualified for this job. But a series of interviews, press conferences and speeches did little to calm tensions within the party.
“Everyone is waiting for Joe,” The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd said of a top Democratic Party official. “He was sitting at home, anxiously saying, ‘What if? What if? What if? We were doing things democratically. We screwed up.
Frustration within the Democratic establishment over Biden’s intransigence also reported Saturday that the president had privately complained that former aides to Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in 1994 and 2010 would The Democratic Party later taught him election strategy.
According to the Times, those who pressure Biden, who is also suffering from the coronavirus, to abandon his re-election bid “may ultimately gain his support and encourage him to stay.”
Some advisers are said to believe Biden will hold out at least until Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington on Wednesday. But some donors say now is an ideal time for Biden to step down, as Republicans have already convened their convention and Democrats are a month away from their convention in Chicago to tell a new story about a new candidate.
A vivid image paints a picture of a coronavirus-stricken, abandoned and embittered veteran politician sitting quietly in a Delaware beach house to absorb the pressure as most top Democrats, including the Senate majority, Party leader Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current minority leader Hakeem Jeffries have called on Biden to at least reconsider his position.
“We have to cauterize this wound now, the sooner the better,” Rep. Gerald E Connolly, D-Va., told The Times. Connolly, who has not publicly called for Biden to step down, said the ongoing drama “shows the cold calculation of politics.”
Over the past week, a wave of Democratic elected officials have issued public statements praising Biden’s record in office but also issuing dire warnings about what will happen to the U.S. if Biden remains the party’s nominee in November’s presidential election. Ushering in Trump’s second term as president.
The latest high-profile figure to join the chorus is Sherrod Brown, the embattled Ohio senator who broke through cover on Friday night to call for an end to Biden’s re-election campaign.
“I heard from Ohioans on important issues, such as how to continue to grow jobs in our state, provide law enforcement with the resources to combat fentanyl, protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts, and prevent ongoing impositions. Fentanyl Effort.
He added: “At this critical moment, we must give full attention to these important issues. I think the president should end his campaign.
These publicly disavowed endorsements are reflected in an equally intense private lobbying campaign by top Democrats, party stalwarts and top donors to convince Biden that he can’t beat Trump unless he’s replaced by someone better replace him, or his political legacy will be at risk.
The campaign appears to be getting closer to convincing Biden and his close inner circle of advisers and family members that the situation has become so serious that he needs to consider taking the extraordinary step of declaring himself a one-term president and endorsing others Stand up to Trump.
Biden has reportedly shifted from an absolute refusal to take action to now being willing to consider his position. Some media reports have even suggested that a decision could be made in the coming days, possibly as soon as this weekend.
On Friday, however, Biden’s campaign issued a clear defiance, saying the president, who is quarantining at his Delaware beach house, was expected to return to the campaign trail.
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“I look forward to returning to the campaign trail next week to continue to expose the threats of Donald Trump’s Plan 2025 agenda while demonstrating my own record and my vision for America: that we save our democracy and protect our country.” rights and freedoms and create opportunity for everyone,” Biden said in a statement.
“The stakes are high and the choice is clear,” Biden added. “Together, we will win.”
Biden does have some key allies who remain at the top of the party. Over the past few days, left-wing congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have both come out in support of Biden’s continued lead.
“If you’re 10,000 percent convinced that a candidate or a president can’t defeat Donald Trump, then do whatever your conscience dictates. But I haven’t seen another scenario that I don’t think puts us in a position where we’re going to face a huge Dangerous,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Biden has trailed Trump in polls over the past week, especially in key battleground states where the election is won or lost. Republican contenders have even boasted that their electoral map is expanding as previously safe Democratic states such as Virginia or New Hampshire could come into play.
But Ocasio-Cortez warned there could be chaos within the party if Biden is excluded from re-election.
“If you think this is going to be an easy transition, I’m here to tell you that the large donor class and the elites who are pushing the president not to be the nominee don’t want the vice president either. [Harris] Be the nominee,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She warned that Democratic “elites” did not want Harris to run instead of Biden, but at a conference in Chicago, state representatives currently backing Biden were free to pledge their support for another candidate
May cause confusion.
She said the Biden crisis has exposed racial, ethnic and class divisions with Democrats, and said her community “doesn’t deserve to accept defeat in July of an election year.” My people were the first to be deported. They were the first people to be thrown into Rikers. They were the first to lose family members in the war.
