To a defiant Biden, the 2024 race is up to the voters, not to Democrats on Capitol Hill

WILMINGTON, Del. — To a defiant President Joe Biden, the 2024 election is up to the public — not the Democrats on Capitol Hill. But the chorus of Democratic voices calling for him to step aside grew Saturday among donors, strategists, lawmakers and their constituents.

The party has not fallen in line behind him even after events set up as part of a blitz to reset his imperiled campaign and show everyone he wasn't too old to stay in the job or to do it another four years.

On Saturday, a fifth Democratic lawmaker said openly that Biden should not run again. U.S. Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota said that after what she saw and heard in the debate with Republican rival Donald Trump, and Biden's "lack of a forceful response" afterward, he should step aside "and allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward."

With the Democratic convention approaching and just four months to Election Day, neither camp in the party can much afford this internecine drama much longer. But it is bound to drag on until Biden steps aside or Democrats realize he won't.

There were signs party leaders realize the standoff needs to end. Some of the most senior lawmakers, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi of California and Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, started publicly working to bring the party back to the president. Both raised pointed questions about Biden after the debate.

"Biden is who our country needs," Clyburn said late Friday after Biden's interview with ABC aired.

On Saturday, Biden's campaign said the president joined a biweekly meeting with all 10 of the campaign's nation co-chairs to "discuss their shared commitment to winning the 2024 race." Clyburn was among them.

But the silence Saturday from most other House Democrats was notable, suggesting not all were convinced.

Biden had no public schedule Saturday but planned to campaign again Sunday in Philadelphia, intent on putting the debate behind him. This coming week, the U.S. will host a NATO summit and the president is to hold a news conference.

Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned Saturday in New Orleans, but she steered clear of questions about whether Biden should step away.

The president's ABC interview on Friday night — billed as an effort to get the campaign back on track — stirred carefully worded expressions of disappointment from the party's ranks, and worse from those who spoke anonymously. Ten days into the crisis moment of the Biden-Trump debate, Biden is dug in.

Even within the White House there were concerns the ABC interview wasn't enough to turn the page.

Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez texted lawmakers and administration officials, encouraging them not to go public with their concerns about the race and the president's electability, according to a Democrat granted anonymity.

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Democrats are wrestling over what they see and hear from the president but are not at all certain about a path forward. They were particularly concerned that Biden suggested that even if he were to be defeated in a rematch with Trump, he would know that he gave it his all.

That seemed an insufficient response.

“A lot can change in the next 72 to 96 hours, because that’s what happens nowadays," Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Saturday. “You know, four months is an eternity in today’s political world. I’m not worried about making sure we have a great ticket if the president chose some other road.”

But Green said he also wants to "respect the president and give him the time to make this decision. And if he decides to be our nominee, he’s it. And we’ll go all in against Mr. Trump because he doesn’t represent the right values for our people.”

As Biden's camp encourages House lawmakers to give the president the chance to show what he can do, one Democratic aide said the Friday interview made things worse. The aide expects more Democrats will likely be calling on Biden to step aside.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, without breaking with Biden at this point, are pulling together meetings with members in the next few days to discuss options. Many lawmakers are hearing from constituents at home and fielding questions. One senator worked to get others together to ask him to step aside.

After the interview, a Democratic donor reported that many fellow donors he spoke with were furious, particularly because the president declined to acknowledge the effects of his aging. Many of those donors seek a change in leadership at the top of the ticket, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biden swatted away calls Friday to step away from the race and dismissed those calling for his ouster, saying he'd spoken with 20 lawmakers and they all encouraged him to stay in the race.

Concern about Biden’s fitness for another four years has been persistent. In an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 77% of U.S. adults said Biden was too old to be effective for four more years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats. His approval rating stands at 39% in the most recent AP-NORC poll.

Biden dismissed the polling, citing as evidence his 2020 surge to the nomination and win over Trump after initially faltering, and the 2022 midterm elections, when polls suggested Republicans would sweep but didn't largely in part over the issue of abortion rights.

"I don't buy that," when he was reminded that he was behind in the polls. "I don't think anybody's more qualified to be president or win this race than me."

Republicans are squarely behind Trump, 78, despite his 34 felony convictions in a hush money trial, that he was found liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and that his businesses were found to have engaged in fraud.

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