REHOBOTH BEACH, Del./WASHINGTON – Other Democratic lawmakers on Friday called for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race, including Sen. feast.
But Biden plans to be back on the road next week, his campaign chairman said, making the case that party leaders need to see strong grassroots support for his candidacy and resolve doubts about whether he should stay in the race for a while. term.
Biden, who is self-isolating at a beach house after contracting COVID earlier this week, is not expected to hold a public event on Friday. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention’s rules committee is set to hold a meeting on virtual recall voting that is planned to take place in early August to ensure that party candidates are on the ballot by state deadlines.
Asked about the scores of headlines reporting that Biden is considering leaving the race, his campaign chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon told MSNBC Morning Joe: “You have heard from the president directly over and over again. He is in this race to win and he is our nominee and he will be our president for a second term.
More Democrats are calling for Biden to step down
The party has experienced extraordinary public deliberation over the past three weeks after Biden froze during a debate with former President Donald Trump. Top leaders in Congress have failed to fend off persistent leaks calling for Biden to drop a younger candidate because he thinks he can’t win the election.
On Friday — the morning after Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention — Sen. Martin Heinrich, DN.M., became the latest senator to call on Biden to resign.
“By passing the torch, he will secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump and preserve the future of our democracy,” Heinrich said.
A group of four prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the progressive caucus called for Biden to step aside. “We have to face the fact that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign,” said Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, Chuy Garcia, D-Ill. , and Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
Separately, two other Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Jim Costa, D.-Calif., and Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., has publicly urged Biden to step down.
Democratic sources told NPR that they expect more lawmakers to go public with concerns about the president’s viability as a candidate, saying the process will take more time as they watch the DNC convention’s rules committee meet this weekend.
However, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, BOLD PAC, endorsed Biden. “It’s clear that Latino voters will determine the margin of victory in competitive races up and down the ballot this cycle, from California and New Mexico to Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Nebraska,” said Rep. Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., chair of BOLD PAC .
Biden’s campaign is showing support from grassroots Democrats
O’Malley Dillon said the campaign had been a “tough few weeks” but said the party needed to unite.
He said Biden has “the greatest respect for the leadership of our party” – referring to reports of doubts expressed by congressional leaders and former President Barack Obama.
But O’Malley Dillon pointed to a letter now signed by 1,400 black women leaders from across the country released this week endorsing Biden and asking party leaders to “stop attacking” him.
“We reject all attempts to ignore this fact or violate the will of millions of voters” who supported Biden in the primary, the woman said in a signed copy of the letter obtained by NPR.
O’Malley Dillon said the campaign has “found some support” since the disastrous Biden debate, but said party volunteers have found strong interest in the battleground states.
“People didn’t go from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. What they did was they said to us, ‘Can he do it?’ And the president said, ‘Yes, I can,'” he said.