The drumbeat of pressure on President Joe Biden to drop out of presidential race intensified on July 3, 2024, with a bombshell report in an American newspaper that he had conceded the possibility to a key ally as well as movement within his own party to demand his withdrawal.
The White House and Biden’s campaign quickly denied the report suggesting that the president had vocalised a supporter that he could ill afford another misstep that would irrevocably damage his campaign. But time is running out for the beleaguered president to convince anxious Democratic Officials, doners and voters that he remains viable in his effort to keep former President Donald Trump from returning to office.
In another blow, dozens of democratic lawmakers are considered signing a letter demanding Biden withdraw from the race, a senior party official said. “The conversations the president has been having with Democrats across the country is going to reassure the American people and that our campaign is going to continue to build and scale to win in November 2023,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Folks said.
That anxiety has only been fueled by a flood of recent reporting suggesting that other democrats are eyeing possible replacement candidates and the media reporting that Biden had recognised he could not afford another misstep that would reinforce perceptions about hs age and acuity fanned by the debate. Biden told his ally the race would be in a different place if upcoming events went poorly, the media reported.
Biden plans to sit for an interview with another international media agency on July 5, 2024, and hold a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. On July 7, he will travel to Philadelphia for another campaign event. Biden has been calling senior Democratic Lawmakers include Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader Hakeem Jefferies in a bid to shore up on support on Capitol hill even as members of his party are publicly expressing dismay about his campaign.
So far only one sitting House Democrat, Llyod Doggett of Texas has publicly called for Biden to survive a coordinated revolt among Democratic lawmakers worried that his poor performance could cost them seats or a shot at control of the House and the Senate in the upcoming election. The president will also navigate a hastily arranged meeting with Democratic governors many of whom are at the centre of speculation about possibly replacing him on the ticket.
Some nationally prominent governors with extensive fundraising networks like Californian Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland’s Wes Moore and Illinois’s JB Pritzker will head to the White House for the crisis meeting in person, while others will join virtually. Newsom told donors he would “stand with” Biden at the meeting and attend campaign events to support him following the gathering. “I understand that folks are anxious right now,” Newsom said in a fundraising appeal.
Other recent reports have also spurred speculation among Democratic allies. On July 2, 2024, the Washington Post reported that former President Barack Obama had privately conveyed to allies that Biden’s path to re-election was more challenging following his debate performance.
Reuters published a new poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris, the most likely successor if Biden were to step aside – trailing Trump, the Republican candidate, by a single point. Momentum behind the vice president, who could take over the campaign’s sizable war chest, has gathered in recent days. Harris and Biden planned to have lunch together Wednesday afternoon.
A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll in May showed Harris gaining trust among swing-state voters, 48% of whom say she’s ready to assume the duties of the presidency if Biden were unable to continue.
The Leadership Now Project, a group of business leaders who had organized to counter what they saw as threats to democracy during the last Trump administration, called for Biden to cede his place as the Democratic nominee. “This process will undoubtedly be messy and is not without risk,” the group said in a statement. “However, the stakes are too high not to act.”
In Wilmington, Delaware, staffers at Biden’s campaign headquarters received an email from campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and chair Jen O’Malley Dillon saying the campaign would increase its cadence of all-staff calls and emails to better coordinate, including a meeting Wednesday afternoon.
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients held a similar all-hands call with staffers there on Wednesday, imploring them to keep their heads held high and continue executing on their responsibilities while acknowledging Biden “didn’t have a great night.”
“People are looking for chatter,” he said, according to a recording of the call obtained by Bloomberg. “Tune it out. “The campaign’s memo asked staffers to emphasize the “full picture” of Biden’s support, downplaying recent polls that have shown a noticeable tilt toward Trump.
“Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race,” the pair wrote. Part of that effort included sending a memo to congressional staffers stressing that polls remained within the margin of error, and the campaign’s belief that a bad showing in the coming weeks did not actually indicate “a reshaping of the race.”
A CBS News survey released Wednesday showed the Republican candidate holding a three-point edge over Biden in battleground states, and two-point lead nationally. Nearly seven in 10 voters said Biden’s age was a factor in their vote.
South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn, a leading Biden supporter who spoke with the president on Wednesday, told American media he wants to see the president in “town-hall type” events now and performing there would calm some fears.
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