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In the aftermath of his troubled debate performance a week and a half ago, it stood to reason that President Joe Biden and his team would turn to the Crisis Management 101 playbook. It was widely assumed that the Democratic incumbent would quickly arrange a press conference or two, blanket the airwaves, and engage in furious outreach to members of Congress and major donors.
For the most part, that’s not what happened — at least not in the first week after the debate. Much of the pushback strategy focused on an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, which aired eight days after the debate, and which did little to silence those who are eager to see the president pass the torch.
As a Politico report summarized as the holiday weekend got underway, “For years, Joe Biden’s team has responded to a storm of bad news with a tried and true approach: hunker down, ignore the chattering class and weather the storm.” And while this approach has been effective in the past, the report added, “[A]mid the wreckage of his disastrous debate performance — and the much bigger questions it raises about his health, his White House’s candor and his ability to effectively make the case against Donald Trump — that approach just isn’t cutting it this time.”
To be sure, the president appears keenly aware of the larger conversation, and he’s taken steps to try to shut it down. Indeed, Biden has declared categorically that he would not, barring divine intervention, withdraw from the 2024 race. The message to his intraparty critics seemed obvious: There’s no point in speculating further, he effectively declared, because he would remain atop the Democratic ticket.
That message is not having its intended effect. NBC News reported overnight that four additional congressional Democrats told their colleagues during a Sunday phone meeting that they believe Biden should step aside.
The House Democrats who said Biden should drop out of the race were Adam Smith of Washington, Jerry Nadler of New York, Mark Takano of California and Joe Morelle of New York. All four lawmakers hold top positions on key committees and bring the number of Democrats in Congress who have called for Biden to reconsider his bid for president to nearly a dozen.
They join an existing group of Democrats who’d already made similar public declarations.
Stepping back, Team Biden is clearly facing a multifaceted problem:
Withdrawal calls: The number of congressional Democrats who want Biden to end his re-election campaign is growing steadily, and as members return to Capitol Hill for the first time in two weeks, it’s very likely that the list is poised to grow longer in the coming days.
Other vocal critics: Plenty of other prominent Democratic voices have come close to calling for his withdrawal, and have done so in ways that add to the pressure on the president. See, for example, Rep. Adam Schiff’s comments on “Meet the Press” yesterday.
Commentators: Biden might not care about the “chattering class,” but when leading voices such as The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, among many others, call on the president to stand down, it affects the public conversation in ways that make matters worse for the incumbent.
Donors: Presidential campaigns are extraordinarily expensive, and as Biden’s fundraising advantage over Trump vanishes, some leading Democratic donors are ready to close their wallets unless Biden is replaced atop the ticket.
A pre-convention “blitz”? Last week, Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime Biden ally, raised the prospect of a “mini-primary” process for other would-be Democratic nominees — a Semafor report referred to it as a “blitz primary“ — and the idea has received support from some donors and observers, as evidenced by Ezra Klein’s latest New York Times column. I haven’t the foggiest idea how such a process would work, but the conversation is itself emblematic of Biden’s larger problem.
We’ll know soon enough what the president and his party decide to do next, but the status quo — every day, the pressure gets a little worse as more Democrats urge Biden to call it a day — appears untenable. Watch this space.