Biden Remains Publicly Defiant Amid Growing Democratic Opposition: From the Politics Department

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, we break down the latest on the state of President Joe Biden’s struggling campaign, including analysis from chief political analyst Chuck Todd and national political correspondent Steve Kornacki.

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Biden remains publicly defiant as Democratic opposition grows louder

By Adam Wollner

More than three weeks after President Joe Biden’s debate debacle, the chorus of Democrats calling on him to drop out of the 2024 race is growing louder. Publicly, Biden remains defiant, while privately his family discusses what the end of his re-election bid would look like. And Vice President Kamala Harris’ allies are beginning to plot a potential campaign if she takes over as party leader.

Here’s the situation on Friday night:

Mounting pressure: Thirteen more Democrats in Congress called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race today, bringing the total to 35, report Scott Wong, Ali Vitali and Rebecca Kaplan.

The new defections include two close allies of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representatives Jared Huffman and Zoe Lofgren of California, and two senators, Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio (first reported by Henry J. Gomez) and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

Brown in particular is significant as he is one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats seeking re-election this year.

Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts renewed his call for Biden to leave in a Boston Globe op-edwriting that the president “seemed not to recognize me” at a D-Day event in Normandy last month.

But Biden also got a boost from Capitol Hill today when BOLD PAC, the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, endorsed his campaign.

Public challenge, private discussions: Biden remains sidelined as he deals with Covid (White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said his symptoms have “significantly improved” since yesterday). But his campaign was still very active – and the president promised to return to action soon.

Biden attacked former President Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican Party convention, saying in a statement this afternoon that he hoped to “return to the campaign trail next week.” In a new memo, his campaign said the party has “no plans for an alternative candidate.” And campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to get the message across that Biden is “absolutely” still in the race. “He’s not going anywhere,” she said.

In an all-staff campaign conference call this afternoon, O’Malley Dillon encouraged his team to focus on the job and voters expressing support for the president, Mike Memoli reports.

The Democratic National Committee also proceeded normally, moving forward with the plan to nominate Biden through a virtual call in early August. Ben Kamisar and Alex Seitz-Wald note that while party rules provide a clear path for Democrats to replace Biden before or after the vote, a decision to replace him for political reasons after that enters thorny territory, effectively becoming a lost cause. September.

Privately, however, members of Biden’s family discussed what an exit from his campaign would look like, report Carol E. Lee, Monica Alba, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Jonathan Allen and Natasha Korecki.

The general tone of the talks has been that any exit plan — should Biden decide to take that step, as some of his closest allies increasingly believe he will — should put the party in the best position to defeat Trump while at the same time , to be worthy of more. for more than five decades he served the country in elected positions.

Harris Featured: A group of Democrats who believe Harris should be the party’s nominee if Biden steps aside have quietly begun mapping out what his presidential campaign apparatus would look like and what his path to victory could be in November, Yamiche Alcindor reports.

The effort, which Harris did not sanction, comes at a time when many are concerned that the vice president does not currently have the personnel or organization necessary to quickly make the move to the top of the ticket.

Harris called major Democratic donors this afternoon, expressing confidence that she and Biden will win the election, Vitali and Alba report. She also made a Biden-style move earlier in the afternoon, making a stop at a new ice cream shop in Washington, D.C., owned by Tyra Banks.

Stay up to date on all the latest 2024 election developments with our live blog →

A whole new campaign

By Chuck Todd

Six weeks ago, it seemed pretty clear that the country was not interested in a rematch between Biden and Trump. Even the ratings for the first debate, important as they were, were shockingly low. With 51 million viewers, it was the first lowest-rated general election debate for a presidential race since we started tracking TV ratings for these things.

Polls also indicated a lower interest in this campaign and an extreme aversion to the choices that the two main parties offered. More than 50% of voters regularly said they would like to see someone other than these two run for president.

In short, voters were telling us in every way that this confrontation was something they didn’t want and wouldn’t watch – until, perhaps, the last possible minute. After all, these two candidates, as far as voters were concerned, were well defined. What new information would voters think they needed?

Well, there’s a reason we political reporters like to utter the cliché that sometimes a month (or a week) is a lifetime in politics. Because right now, we are in the middle of a second or third political life, right since the debate on June 27th.

We are now moving from a presidential campaign that left the public disinterested and at times disgusted, to a campaign that I see generating an electorate that could be just as interested, if not more so, than in 2008 and 2020, two of the countries with the highest voter turnout. elections in the last 50 years.

And the more the public pays attention, the more volatile this election could become again.

Before the assassination attempt, there was no scenario in which I believed Trump could persuade skeptics to give him a second look, much less win over voters who decided not to support him in 2020 — especially after his actions on September 6. January 2021, in particular. And maybe he still can’t win over these people. But I have a feeling those skeptics will be curious enough to know whether Saturday changed Trump to at least give him a look, perhaps tuning in to some of Thursday’s acceptance speeches. And that is an opportunity.

Meanwhile, if Democrats end up with a new nominee — and that seems more likely to happen by the hour — that is also likely to suddenly spark interest in what the new nominee has to say, which in turn could engage the electorate in a in a way that the pre-debate version of this campaign simply did not achieve.

Bottom line: We are getting very close to the moment when it would be fair to say, “Throw away everything you thought you knew about this election.”

Read more from Chuck →

A party can go wrong – and it has happened before

By Steve Kornacki

Battlefield research looks bad. Forecast models are murkier. States presumed to be secure in its column now appear to be in play.

The realization that their presidential candidate has no realistic path to victory is sweeping the party. Panicked leaders are speaking out more and more every hour. Dozens of people are now publicly demanding that their candidate drop out of the race. And the other party is licking its chops, thinking big about not just a victory, but also a landslide at the polls.

It’s happening now with the Democrats and Biden, yes, but it’s also happened before. It was October 8th when Republicans exploded into panic in the latest – and most dramatic, so far – turmoil surrounding their candidate. The release of the “Access Hollywood” tape convinced many top Republicans that Trump’s path to victory had gone from slim to nonexistent, and a frantic 36-hour effort to dislodge him from the top of the ticket ensued. You know the rest.

It’s worth keeping in mind how and why Trump prevailed, even after his party leaders disowned him, as Biden refuses to bow to similar pressure.

There will always be debate about what exactly put Trump over the top, but whatever the case, one critical variable stands out: his opponent’s deep unpopularity.

Read more from Steve →

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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