President Joe BidenHis increasingly emphatic declarations that he will not abandon the presidential race are sending an unmistakable message to potential rebel Democrats: any future criticism will hurt the party’s chances against donald trump.
For days, Biden has said that he will remain his party’s candidate after his weak debate, unless there is an intervention from the “Lord Almighty”. On Monday, he put that statement into action.
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It all started with an open letter to Democratic congressmen saying he was definitely running. He followed up with a defiant call into one of his favorite cable news programs, condemning the “elites” trying to oust him. He included a midday appearance on a private video call with some of his campaign’s top funders, as well as a call for a virtual meeting Monday night with a stalwart of his previous support: the Congressional Black Caucus.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Biden told donors.
The moves represented a show of defiance that the Biden operation hoped would earn it some deference as restless Democratic lawmakers returned to the Capitol after the holidays. At the same time, Biden’s team was trying to recast the pressure campaign to make him step aside as a campaign masterminded by the party’s establishment elite rather than a genuine reflection of popular voters’ fears about the commander-in-chief’s age. -chief of 81 years and acuity.
“I love fighting Joe Biden,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., an outspoken Biden supporter. “When he gets punched, he comes back and punches harder.”
When lawmakers returned to Washington, Biden received some key words of support, including from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (“He’s in this race; the matter is closed”), but also some concerns among influential lawmakers, including the senator. Patty Murray of Washington, who is in the Democratic lead (“We need to see a much stronger and more energetic candidate”).
In both his public and private comments Monday, Biden made clear that he holds all the cards in determining his political future. He won every state in the Democratic primary and won 14 million votes, giving him virtually all the delegates who will go to Chicago next month for the party convention.
“I’m more than presumptuous,” Biden told Mika Brzezinski, one of the co-hosts of “Morning Joe,” during his MSNBC phone interview. “I will be the Democratic candidate.”
Biden is trying to turn attention to Trump, saying on the conference call with the campaign’s top financiers: “We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump on the spot.”
Even some of the president’s allies, however, asked why the public relations campaign was taking place more than 10 days after the debate, and not in its immediate aftermath. Biden waited eight days after the debate to give his first impromptu interview, with ABC News on Friday, and only called congressional leaders days after the debate.
David Doak, a longtime Democratic strategist, said the effort to impose party discipline was understandable to Biden, even if it risked “dividing the party at the worst time.” By insisting so unequivocally that he is not stepping aside, Biden is making it harder for Democrats to demand that he do so, lest they weaken him in the fall.
“Strategically, that’s what I would advise him to do if he wanted to keep the nomination at all costs,” Doak said. “It is the ‘at all costs’ that is the issue at hand.”
On MSNBC, Biden urged those who want a different candidate to try running against him. “Go ahead, advertise for president,” Biden challenged them. “Challenge me at the convention.”
In 2020, Biden spoke of serving as a “bridge” to the next generation of Democratic talent. Now he sees himself as the party’s best chance to defeat Trump again, regardless of widespread concerns about his age.
“I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t absolutely believe I was the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump in 2024,” Biden said.
Despite being the head of the party and the most powerful elected official in the country, Biden on Monday tried to take on the mantle of an outsider by rejecting his own party’s establishment.
“I’m getting very frustrated with the elites,” Biden said on the MSNBC show that has long been a favorite of the Democratic political establishment. “I’m not talking about you,” he said of his “Morning Joe” co-hosts, “but the party elites who know so much more.” He uttered these last words with a monotone of disdain.
He added that his campaign weekend in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin reaffirmed his belief that voters supported him. “I don’t care what millionaires think,” Biden said.
Less than three hours later, Biden joined a Zoom call with members of his national finance committee – major donors, millionaires and financiers who pool contributions from others – to thank them for their support.
Biden’s attempt to recast the race as a battle against elites – in an echo of how Trump has frequently attacked his own party’s leadership – did not sit well with some sectors of the party.
“This desire to pit the ‘Democratic elite’ against ‘normal people’ is evil,” wrote Hilary Rosen, a veteran Democratic strategist, on Social Platform X. “The elite are actually behind in their concerns about Biden. Most voters have been concerned about this for the last two years.”
A New York Times/Siena College poll last week showed that 74% of voters said Biden was too old to be effective, including 59% of Democrats.
A day after some influential House Democrats met virtually on a private call and expressed their concerns about supporting Biden, the president’s operation began to fall into line and receive more statements of support, including from some prominent Black lawmakers.
“I’m 100 percent with the president,” Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said on MSNBC. The current president, Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, issued a statement Monday supporting Biden as well: “President Joe Biden is the nominee and was selected by millions of voters across the country.”
Representative Grace Meng of New York, former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, also issued a statement of support. Some who have criticized Biden in private have remained largely silent publicly, including Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, who refused to answer questions about the president at an appearance in Manhattan.
Still, Biden continued to face fresh Democratic doubts on Monday.
Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who is running for reelection this fall in a state Trump is expected to win in a landslide, said the president “has to prove to the American people — including me — that he is up to the job for another office”. four years.”
And Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio said “time is running out” for Biden, who he said needed to be able to make his case “again and again and again.”
Biden’s next steps are expected to be the central topic of discussion on Tuesday, when House Democrats hold a members-only briefing at party headquarters.
The central concern among many Biden allies has been the president’s ability — or inability — to handle impromptu appearances.
On Monday, a White House spokesman, John Kirby, announced that the president would also participate in what he called a “major press conference” on Thursday, following a NATO summit.
But in a sign of the challenges facing the president, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre found herself fielding questions about why a Parkinson’s specialist visited the White House eight times in eight months in the same briefing.
Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff who helped him prepare for the debate, wrote on X that “it takes the right candidate” to defeat Trump and that “experts have always bet on verbally gifted opponents – Ds and Rs – that they have lost.”
“Only one person beat him,” Klain added.
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