Facing increased pressure, Biden steps up efforts to reassure Democrats

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a longtime Biden ally, said it was fair to ask after his debate missteps: “Is this an episode or a condition?” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose support was instrumental in Biden’s 2020 victory, said he would support Vice President Harris if Biden ended his reelection bid.

Yet no prominent Democrat has explicitly called publicly for Biden to resign, and the president’s team has sought to silence voices of discontent. The president plans to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders Wednesday night, after several days in which he kept a low profile even as his aides worked feverishly to quell Democratic anxiety.

Biden also agreed to an interview Friday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News, and plans a press conference next week.

The moves reflect the Biden team’s conclusion that he urgently needs to get more personally involved to reassure party leaders, as well as the public, that he can continue his re-election campaign.

At a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday, Biden expressed confidence while downplaying his struggles on debate night.

“I know I didn’t have my best debate night,” he said. But citing the $38 million his campaign has raised since the debate, he added: “So far, so good. I’m happy with what’s going on.”

He noted that in the days leading up to the debate he had travelled to France for a D-Day commemoration and to Italy for the Group of Seven summit.

“I wasn’t very smart,” he said. “I decided to go around the world a few times, crossing I don’t know how many time zones – to be honest, I think it’s 15 time zones… I didn’t listen to my team. And then I came back and almost fell asleep on stage. Anyway, that’s not an excuse, but it’s an explanation.”

The Democratic Party has been in crisis for days, after long-standing concerns about Biden’s age and stamina were crystallized by his debate performance in which he sometimes struggled to finish sentences. Some Democrats complained that Biden did not respond with enough alacrity, saying he needed to make more public appearances and engage more with party leaders.

Since the debate, Biden’s top aides have been making furious calls to major Democratic leaders and donors, but Biden as of Tuesday morning had not spoken with party figures such as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

On Monday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, held a conference call with other Democratic governors to discuss Biden’s reelection campaign. Several participants expressed frustration at not hearing from the president in person, according to a person familiar with the call, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.

It was those complaints that prompted plans for a meeting between Biden and Democratic governors on Wednesday, aimed at focusing on the state of his campaign.

The party’s governors are in a difficult position because of the outcry over Biden’s debate performance. Many of them are among the president’s strongest supporters and have been called upon to reaffirm their support for his candidacy.

But some governors, including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gavin Newsom of California, are also rising political stars who have been suggested by Democratic donors and activists as potential replacements for Biden if he steps down.

Many in the party are eagerly awaiting independent polls expected to be released in the coming days, which will show whether Biden’s performance in the debates cost him significant support.

“There’s a lot of affection for Joe Biden within the party, but nothing motivates elected officials more than survival instinct. And if the polls drop, members will start jumping ship,” said Howard Wolfson, an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign who now works with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “If there’s one thing members know, it’s how to interpret a poll.”

And if polls begin to suggest that support for Biden is falling to the point where it could hurt Democratic candidates in the Senate and House, that could prompt those candidates to abandon him, Wolfson suggested.

“I guarantee you that every member of a competitive race is already out there with a poll or is about to be out there,” he said. “And if the data is bad, members will be looking for the exit.”

In another sign of the turbulence engulfing Democrats, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III told a few key allies after the debate that he planned to break with Biden during an appearance on a Sunday news show — a potentially dramatic defection from a high-profile figure.

Top Democrats caught wind of the plan and began calling Manchin — who recently registered as an independent but is a Democratic caucusgoer — and urging him to reconsider, according to two people familiar with the response who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Manchin ultimately decided not to appear on the Sunday show.

After Thursday night’s debate, Biden held a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, and several fundraisers before returning to the presidential retreat at Camp David to spend two days with his family.

Biden arrived at the White House on Monday night, speaking before a series of television cameras to sharply criticize a Supreme Court ruling that declared Donald Trump immune from prosecution for his official actions while president.

Overall, the president’s schedule for the week was light. On Tuesday, he attended a briefing on extreme weather at an emergency operations center in Washington, D.C. — where he delivered remarks warning of the dangers ahead this summer and lambasted Republicans who deny climate change — and was later scheduled to attend a fundraiser in McLean, Virginia.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that Biden has a busy schedule planned for the coming days, including a campaign appearance in Wisconsin and a speech to the National Education Association in Philadelphia.

Jean-Pierre alternated between openly wishing that the Biden team could turn the page on the debate, while also saying she understood the reason for reporters’ questions about Biden’s sometimes elderly appearance.

“We get it. We don’t take away anything from what you all saw, what the American people saw,” Jean-Pierre said. “We understand it was a bad night. It’s not uncommon for incumbents to have a bad night in their first debate. And we’re going to continue to do the work that we’ve done on behalf of the American people.”

She said that even though Biden had a cold during the debate — and she said he still does — he was not taking cold medication at the time.

Some Democratic leaders began speaking out Tuesday with less than unequivocal support for Biden remaining in the race. Nancy Pelosi, for example, said she heard “mixed” reactions following the debate.

“I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’ When people ask that question, it’s a legitimate question — for both candidates,” Pelosi said on MSNBC.

Trump was also criticized for his performance in the debate, as he made a number of false statements, but his speech was relatively clear and did not provoke a revolt among members of his own party.

“I’m not a doctor. I can’t say what’s going to happen three or four years from now,” Pelosi added. “But I think in my experience, and this is what you asked me, he’s going to continue to be a great president.”

She also said it was “essential” for Biden to do several interviews where “no holds barred, no questions fair” to showcase his abilities and signal that his debate performance was an aberration, not a revelation.

But other cracks in the Democratic edifice, however small, began to appear.

Clyburn, who has been one of Biden’s most important political allies, said on MSNBC that he would support Vice President Harris if Biden were to step down. Clyburn did not suggest that should happen, but it signaled that some prominent Democrats were at least beginning to envision a post-Biden landscape.

Adam Frisch, a Democratic candidate for a Colorado House seat, has been blunt in his assertion that Biden should end his reelection campaign. “It’s been clear to me for some time — and the debates have only reinforced it — that neither candidate is fit to be president,” Frisch said in a video. “We deserve better. President Biden should withdraw from this race.”

The statement came shortly after Doggett issued a statement calling on Biden to step down.

“I had hoped the debate would provide momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies,” the statement said. “President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024.”

Doggett noted that he represents the heart of a congressional district that was represented by President Lyndon B. Johnson when he was a member of the House.

“In very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to step down,” Doggett said, referring to Johnson’s decision not to run for reelection in 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War. “President Biden should do the same.”

Michael Scherer contributed to this report.