WASHINGTON – Sick of COVID and abandoned by allies, President Joe Biden is fuming at his Delaware beach house, increasingly resentful of what he sees as an orchestrated campaign to get him out of the race and bitter toward some of those he once considered close, including his former running mate. Barack Obama.
Biden has been in politics long enough to assume that the leaks that have appeared in the media in recent days are being coordinated to increase pressure on him to step aside, according to people close to him. He considers the deputy Nancy Pelosithe former Speaker of the House, the main instigator, but is also angry with Obama, seeing him as a behind-the-scenes puppet master.
The friction between the sitting president and the leaders of his own party, so close to an election, is unlike anything seen in Washington for generations — especially since the Democrats now working to facilitate his departure were some of the most critical allies for its success over the last twelve years. years. It was Obama who elevated Biden from vice presidential nominee, setting him up to win the White House in 2020, and it was Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumerthe Democratic leader in the Senate, who has driven Biden’s landmark legislative achievements.
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But several people close to Biden, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal matters, described a president unwell, coughing and lashing out more than 100 miles from the corridors of power as his presidency faces its most dangerous moment.
He watched with growing exasperation as a succession of news stories appeared, one after another, reporting that Schumer, Pelosi, Obama and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, had warned of a devastating defeat for the party. in November.
And he certainly noticed that Obama did nothing to help him in recent days, even as his own former aides publicly led the way by calling on Biden to withdraw, in what was interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as a message from the former’s camp. -president. . Obama’s invisible but clearly felt presence, in particular, has brought a Shakespearean quality to the drama now unfolding, given their eight-year partnership.
While Biden and his team insist publicly that he will stay in the race, privately, people close to him have said he is increasingly accepting that he may not make it, and some have begun discussing dates and locations for a possible announcement that he is stepping aside. .
One factor that could delay a decision: advisers believe that Biden would not want to do so before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visits Washington on Wednesday, at the initiative of Republicans to address Congress, not willing to give satisfaction to the Prime Minister, given his tension. relations lately due to the war in the Gaza Strip.
However, Biden bristles at pressure, and those who pressure him run the risk that he will stand up and ultimately cause him to remain. Two people familiar with his thinking said he had not changed his mind as of Friday afternoon.
By privately criticizing Obama and even former aides, President Bill ClintonBiden has made it clear that he finds it particularly interesting that the architects of the Democrats’ historic defeats in the 1994 and 2010 midterm elections were lecturing him about how to save the party after he presided over a better-than-expected midterm in 2022. One person said that Biden is not angry with Clinton himself – in fact, he is grateful that the former president pressured donors to continue giving – others said that Obama is another story.
“We have to cauterize this wound now, and the sooner we can do that the better,” said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va., who has not publicly called for the president to resign. He said the barrage of criticism must be difficult for Biden. “I mean, for me, this is very painful. I think it just shows the cold calculation of politics.”
More congressional Democrats publicly called on the president on Friday to pass the torch to another candidate to face former President Donald Trump in the fall. Among them were Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and at least nine House Democrats, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a close ally of her fellow Californian Pelosi.
The fact that Pelosi’s allies are coming out is not seen as a coincidence at the president’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. When another of his allies, Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, spoke earlier this week, a Biden administration official noted that it might have been Schiff’s lips moving, but it was Pelosi who was speaking.
It wasn’t just his allies. Rep. Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and Pelosi’s rival, said Friday that Biden, “a mentor and friend” who helped him get elected to the House in 2014, “didn’t seem to recognize me” when they met at a celebration of the anniversary of D-Day in France last month.
“Of course, this can happen as anyone ages, but as I watched the disastrous debate a few weeks ago, I have to admit that what I saw in Normandy was part of a deeper problem,” Moulton wrote in The Boston Globe, repeating your statement. ask Biden to give up.
Biden responded on Friday with a statement promising to continue the race. “I look forward to returning to the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, while also defending my own record and the vision I have for America: one where we save our democracy, let us protect our rights and freedoms and create opportunities for all,” he said.
The White House and Biden’s campaign have denied that he is about to give up. “Absolutely, the president is in this race,” campaign chairwoman Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, one of the president’s favorite shows and a regular place for Democrats to talk to others. Democrats. “You heard him say it over and over again.”
She acknowledged, however, that the campaign has suffered erosion. “I’m not here to say it hasn’t been a difficult few weeks for the campaign,” she said. “There is no doubt that yes. And we definitely saw some drop in support, but it was a small movement.” She argued that polls show the race was already “close” before the debate and that few voters have changed since then.
“The American people know the president is older,” she said. “They see that. They knew this before the debate. Yes, of course, we have a lot of work to do to make sure we are reassuring the American people that, yes, he is old, but he can do the job and he can win.”
All the political machinations were taking place while the president battled COVID symptoms in isolation in Rehoboth. He was still coughing and hoarse on Friday, but was improving, his doctor said. Jill Biden was with him, although he remained in a separate room.
Among those who will be with him in Rehoboth this weekend will be his advisors Steve Ricchetti and Annie Tomasini. Anthony Bernal, the first lady’s chief of staff, accompanied her. It was unclear whether Biden would still return to Washington on Sunday as planned, but he was scheduled to travel on Wednesday to Austin, Texas, for a postponed celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.
Biden’s outrage at his former partner, Obama, represents the latest chapter in a complicated relationship. While they weren’t close when they came together to run in 2008, they became friends during their two terms together in the White House, especially bonding when Biden’s son, Beau, died in 2015.
But Biden has held a grudge since Obama gently discouraged him from running for president in 2016, steering the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump. So Obama’s advice may not be particularly welcome in Rehoboth right now, which may be one reason the former president doesn’t offer it directly, according to people close to him.
Obama last saw Biden at a lavish, record-breaking fundraiser in Hollywood before the debate in June, when the two appeared on stage together. In the end, Obama appeared to be ushering Biden off the stage. A former Obama aide who was present that night said it was clear the former president was surprised and shaken by how much Biden had aged and seemed disoriented.
That fundraiser was the latest major achievement for the campaign, which hoped to raise about $50 million this month from major donors for the Biden Victory Fund, just as it did in June. But after the debate, he could raise less than $25 million in July, an awfully modest amount for a summer month in a presidential race, according to four people briefed on the campaign’s finances. The campaign is not required to release fundraising numbers from July through mid-August, and a spokesperson dismissed the reports as “speculation.”
When trying to influence Biden, many associates avoid making harsh public statements because they empathize with him and fear such statements could backfire. Going public, some said, could make the president dig even deeper. And some were reluctant to have their names attached to the statements because they worried about how he would react to criticism from his friends.
While the 40 or so members of Congress who have publicly called on the president to drop out of the race represent a minority, privately dozens of others are said to agree. Two House Democrats estimated that, in a secret vote, 70% to 80% of their caucus would prefer Biden to withdraw.
“They won’t be able to contain it. I think the dam broke,” Connolly said. Even before Friday’s announcements, he said, “my sense was that most of my colleagues were so restless that they would welcome the decision to switch horses.”
But Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., one of the president’s closest allies, made an impassioned defense of Biden’s ability to serve a second term. Speaking onstage at the Aspen Security Conference in Colorado, Coons cited the president’s work hosting a NATO summit, as well as his recent press conference and campaign events. “There are still people who say he is not strong enough or capable enough to be our next president,” Coons said. “I disagree.”
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