Biden’s ability to win back skeptical Democrats is tested at a dangerous time for his campaign

WASHINGTON – Despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to take on Republicans donald trumpPresident Joe Biden did not ease the pressure on him to leave the 2024 race.

Biden has weighty options before him this weekend that could shape the direction of the country and his party as the country heads into the November elections with a Republican Party energized after the Republican nominating convention to send Trump back to the White House.

Rep. Mark Takano, the top Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, added his name to the list of nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress on Saturday who say it’s time for Biden to leave the race. The Californian called on Biden to “pass the torch” to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris, in turn, has won the support of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who told MSNBC on Saturday that the vice president is “ready to step forward” to unite the party and take on Trump if Biden decides to withdraw. Warren said knowing this “gives me a lot of hope right now.”

More lawmakers are expected to speak out in the coming days. Donors have raised concerns. And an organization calling on Biden to “pass the torch” planned a Saturday rally outside the White House. Biden has insisted he is fully involved.

“There is no joy in acknowledging that he should not be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats calling for Biden to exit the race. “But the stakes of this election are too high and we cannot risk the focus of the campaign being anything other than Donald Trump.”

The impasse has become increasingly unsustainable for the party and its leaders, one month before Democratic National Convention This should be a unifying moment to nominate your sitting president to confront Trump. Instead, the party is at a crossroads not seen in generations.

It’s creating a stark juxtaposition with Republicans who, after years of bitter and chaotic infighting over Trump, have essentially embraced the former president’s far-right takeover of the Republican Party, despite his criminal conviction in a hush-money case and of a pending federal criminal charge for attempting to overturn the 2020 election before the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

From his beach house in Delaware, Biden, 81, is isolating himself after announcing a COVID infection, but also politically with a small circle of family and close advisers. White House physician Kevin O’Connor said Saturday that the president’s symptoms were improving but that he still suffered from a dry cough and hoarseness.

The president’s team insisted he was ready to return to the campaign trail next week to counter what they called Trump’s “dark vision.”

“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the polls,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “The risks are high and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”

But outside the Rehoboth enclave, debate and passions are intensifying.

A donor call with about 300 people on Friday was described as a waste of time by one participant, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation. Although the person praised Harris, who spoke for five minutes, the rest of the time was filled by others who brushed aside the donors’ concerns, according to the participant.

Not only are Democrats divided over what Biden should do, they also have no consensus on how to choose a successor.

Democrats agitating for Biden’s exit don’t appear to have coalesced around a plan for what would happen next, for now. Very few lawmakers mentioned Harris in their statements, and some said they favor an open nomination process that would give the party’s endorsement to a new candidate.

Democratic senators Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont called on Biden to drop out of the race and said they would favor an open nomination process at the convention.

“Having it open would strengthen whoever the final candidate is,” Welch said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Some House Democrats agreed to an open nomination process.

A person familiar with Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi’s thinking said that although she is a friend and admirer of the vice president, she believes that anyone who wants to be president would be best served by such a process, believing that whoever emerges as a candidate at the convention would be strengthened to win the elections. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to characterize Pelosi’s thought process.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a Pelosi ally who on Friday called for Biden to resign, said Friday on MSNBC that some kind of “mini-primary” that would include Harris makes sense.

Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to overtake Harris, the nation’s first female vice president, who is Black and Southeast Asian, and logistically impractical, with a virtual nomination vote planned for early next month before the convention opens. Democrat in Chicago, in Chicago. August 19th.

Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who has called for Biden to resign, has explicitly supported Harris as a replacement.

“To give Democrats a strong and viable path to winning the White House, I call on President Biden to release his delegates and empower Vice President Harris to step forward and become the Democratic nominee for president,” he said. McCollum in his statement.

It’s unclear what, if anything, more the president could do to reverse course and win back Democratic lawmakers and voters, who are wary of his ability to defeat Trump and serve another term after his faltering debate performance in the last month.

Biden, who sent a defiant letter to Democrats in Congress promising to stay in the race, has yet to visit the Capitol to bolster support, an absence noted by senators and representatives.

The president conducted a round of virtual talks with several caucuses last week – some of which ended badly.

During a call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, one Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin of California, told Biden he should step aside. During another meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Biden became defensive when Rep. Jared Huffman of California asked him to consider meeting with the party’s top leaders about the path forward.

Huffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called on Biden on Friday for Biden to resign.

At the same time, Biden still has strong supporters. He won support Friday from the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has the support of leaders from the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in East Lansing, Michigan, and Mary Clare Jalonick, Seung Min Kim, Farnoush Amiri and Darlene Superville in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.