WASHINGTON — As more and more Democrats call on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, a key group of allies on Capitol Hill, continue to broadly support the president but worry about the possibility of continued pressure would prove fatal to his campaign and harm the party in general.
In interviews Thursday with NBC News, five caucus members said that although small fissures are emerging, most lawmakers remain loyal to Biden. Still, they want to see a change in campaign strategy and personnel to better position Democrats to win in November — concerns they say they’ve shared with the campaign for months.
Two of those CBC members, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their thoughts on Biden, also said they fear Biden will not be able to remain a candidate if he cannot overcome his dismal debate performance in the coming days and convince party leaders, donors and voters of that he remains the best candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump.
“I have loyalty to Biden, there’s no doubt about that,” said longtime Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. “As things stand, I want him to win. But if he says, ‘You know, I’ve been listening and talking to people and I don’t want to go any further,’ or something like that, I’m ready for someone who can win. I think everyone, all of us, are obsessed with winning because it’s so serious not to be there.”
Asked whether Biden will be able to survive the crisis, Cleaver paused and simply replied: “I don’t know.”
The two Black Caucus members who spoke on condition of anonymity agreed that the majority of the group supports the president, but said that as time passes, Biden’s position, both at the top of the ticket and as the best person to defeat Trump , weakens.
Cleaver said he wants to see a big shift in the conversation about Biden’s status as the Democratic nominee by the time the Republican National Convention ends next week, and hopes Democratic leadership and Biden can find a way forward.
CBC members are acutely aware that things are not going well for the Biden campaign, he said. “No one at CBC is mentally ill, which would have to be the case if someone said, ‘Oh, that’s great. It’s okay,’” Cleaver said. “We would be trying to arrest them somewhere.”
During a appearance Friday on NBC’s “TODAY” showRep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., one of Biden’s top allies on Capitol Hill, doubled down on his support for the president and declared that the internal debate over his candidacy needs to end soon.
“I took him at his word that he’s going to stay in the race and that’s why I’m all in,” Clyburn said. “I’m following Biden no matter what direction he takes, no matter what method he takes. I’m with Joe Biden.”
But Clyburn also left the door open for Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the ticket if Biden drops out. “If he changes his mind,” Clyburn said, “I will fully support the vice president.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a senior CBC member who led the special committee that investigated Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack, downplayed talk of any major gaps in support for Biden among CBC members. But he also acknowledged that some members of the group became more frustrated as calls for Biden to step aside dragged on for days. He said only one, maybe two, of the 60 members had publicly criticized Biden.
“This could be a scratch, I don’t see it as a crack,” Thompson said.
Those scratches were evident in several statements from Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who stopped short of calling for Biden to resign but strongly suggested that the party should reevaluate its nominee. “The president didn’t just have a ‘bad debate,’” Torres wrote on X. “The reality we saw with our own lying eyes is evidence of a deeper challenge. … If the President formally becomes the Democratic nominee, we will have no choice but to make the best of a complicated situation. But it makes no sense to deny the complications.”
One of the CBC members who spoke on condition of anonymity said he “doubts” Biden can last another four years as president and believes there has been a notable decline in his health. But that Democrat said he wanted to see Biden stay in the race, win re-election and then resign, making Harris the first black woman to become president.
(Harris, for her part, has insisted that she remains loyal to Biden and has been one of his fiercest defenders, making calls to dozens of party leaders, civil rights activists and donors to reassure them that Biden can move forward despite of the pleas for him to leave.)
Of the Democratic congressmen who have publicly called for Biden to resign, none are members of the Black Caucus.
Earlier this week, CBC President Steven Horsford, D-Neb., reaffirmed his support for Biden in a move seen as particularly significant as Horsford faces a competitive race this fall. Still, Horsford said Thursday that the CBC is “not a monolith” and that its members, like the House Democratic caucus in general, have “the right to speak for themselves.”
Horford added that he and caucus members have been telling Biden and his campaign “not just in recent weeks, but in recent months” that “fundamental change is needed to win.”
“This change needs to be focused on changes in structure, changes in strategy, changes in spending,” Horsford said.
Another CBC member who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations said Black lawmakers have been emphasizing for months to the Biden campaign that they need to spend more resources talking about kitchen table issues such as wages, housing costs and inflation. and less time on topics like Trump being a threat to democracy and abortion restrictions following the overturn of Roe v Wade. The lawmaker said that while the state of American democracy and abortion are important, they are not the issues that most voters care about in their day-to-day lives.
Thompson echoed Horsford’s call for a change in the campaign, suggesting that Biden is too isolated by his inner circle and needs to hear from a range of advisers. “He needs to put some additional chairs at his campaign table so he can get a broader view of what people are really saying here,” Thompson said.
Asked if he thinks there is good representation of people of color in Biden’s inner circle, Thompson responded: “No. I understand loyalty and he has people who have been with him for a long time, but that’s not diversity.”
Former Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., who previously served as president of the CBC while in Congress, is co-chair of Biden’s campaign, while Julie Chávez Rodriguez, granddaughter of labor leader César Chávez, is campaign manager. Thompson said she wants to see more representation of people of color on the Biden campaign.
“It’s a big country. From when he started racing to where he is now, a lot of things have changed and he has to consider his team to reflect that,” Thompson said. “You maintain the team, but you make it grow. I think there will be some additions. … Cedric Richmond is good, but he’s a person.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
