Welcome to the online version of From the Policy Deska nightly newsletter that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News politics team on the campaign, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, national political reporter Sahil Kapur reports on how President Joe Biden is trying to hold his fractured coalition together. Plus, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker breaks down Biden’s most revealing responses from his press conference.
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Biden Soldiers continue rally in Michigan, speak with lawmakers as more Democrats defect
By Sahil Kapur
DETROIT — President Joe Biden’s coalition is falling apart, and a new prominent defection in battleground Michigan is drawing attention as Biden hosts a rally here Friday night.
Rep. Hillary Scholten, a 42-year-old freshman who flipped a GOP-held district in Grand Rapids in 2022, said voters elected her “to tell the truth, even when it’s hard” and that Biden is no longer the right standard . bearer for the Democratic Party to take over donald trump.
“Joe Biden has been that leader for a long time; But it’s not about the past, it’s about the future. It’s time to pass the torch,” Scholten said in a statement.
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Democrats from the volunteer group Pass the Torch, which seeks to replace Biden at the top of the ticket, said their warning should be heeded.
“People should really listen,” Abby Clark, a longtime Democratic organizer and former campaign adviser based in Detroit, told NBC News. “This district is exactly the type of district we need to win with a Democratic ticket to elect a president and have a majority in each chamber.”
Michigan is a must-win state for Biden, whose path to 270 electoral votes almost certainly passes through the upper Midwest, given his biggest struggles in Sun Belt states like Nevada and Arizona. He is also hosting a Senate race that will be a must-win for Democrats if they want to have any hope of maintaining their majority. Some Democrats fear a collapse at the top of the ticket that could harm their congressional candidates and generate a red wave for Trump.
Notably, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., the leading candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination, will not join Biden in Detroit, with her team citing a scheduling conflict. Other Michigan Democrats are expected to attend the event, according to the campaign: Reps. Haley Stevens, Debbie Dingell and Shri Thanedar.
The event comes a day after Biden’s one-on-one press conference to close out the NATO summit, and as a growing number of Democrats ask him to leave of the 2024 race. Three more came forward immediately after Biden’s Thursday night press conference: Reps. Jim Himes of Connecticut, Scott Peters of California and Eric Sorensen of Illinois. And several others were released on Friday: Reps. Brittany Pettersen of Colorado and Mike Levin from California.
Still, Biden moves forward.
Before his event in Michigan, he sought to reinforce his position on Capitol Hill, participating in virtual meetings the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Biden also plans to speak to members of the New Democratic Coalitionwhich includes some of the party’s moderate voices, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Saturday. And this all happened after he met with the House Minority Leader Hakeem JeffriesD.N.Y., Thursday evening.
About that: Reporting by Yamiche Alcindor and Scott Wong of NBC News that members of the Congressional Black Caucus, a key group of Biden allies on Capitol Hill, continue to broadly support the president. But they want to see a change in strategy and personnel to better position Democrats to win in November — concerns they say they’ve shared with the campaign for months.
It is like NBC News’ Bridget Bowman, Julie Tsirkin and Wong discoveredDemocrats facing competitive re-election battles this fall are not eager to say whether they would campaign alongside Biden.
Two revealing responses from Biden’s press conference
By Kristen Welker
A lesson from Biden Press conference Thursday night left Democrats in an uncomfortable middle ground.
Biden has performed well enough — especially on policy issues — to keep the entire Democratic Party from abandoning him. But he also made several gaffes and mistakes, highlighting that his debate performance two weeks ago was not an isolated mistake.
Democratic sources tell me that Biden is firm and committed to staying in the race. They also point to the potential chaos that could be unleashed if he resigns from the ticket.
But Biden’s press conference also contained two particularly revealing answers — about what’s driving the president to stay in the race and whether there’s anything that might make him reconsider.
The first came after a question about whether Biden was fully committed to staying in the race until November. The president’s answer was yes, and he continued:
“Do you think our democracy is under siege based on this court? Do you think democracy is under siege based on Project 2025? Do you think that [Trump] Do you mean what he says when he says he is going to end the public service, eliminate the Department of Education? …I mean, we’ve never been here before. And that’s the other reason why I haven’t passed on, as you say, to another generation. I have to finish this work. I have to finish this work, because there is a lot at stake.” (Emphasis is mine.)
But Biden has never clearly answered what “finishing this work” means. Will it simply be defeating Trump again? Are there more Supreme Court appointments? Is it legislation he hopes to pass even if Republicans control one or two chambers of Congress? And are there ANY other Democrats who can finish the job?
The second noteworthy response came after a reporter asked the following question:
“If your team went back and showed you data that [Vice President Kamala Harris] If you would do better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?”
“No,” Biden responded, “unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way we can win.’”
The president then added: “No one is saying that.”
Biden is correct. Most public polls released after the debate still show a competitive presidential election.
Still, he left the door open to the possibility of dropping out of the race if the numbers change.
That’s all from the Department of Politics for now. If you have feedback – like or dislike – send us an email at newsletter@nbcuni.com
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