AP (“Chaos swirling since Biden’s debate flub is causing cracks in a White House known for discipline“):
Internal drama. Leaks. Second-guessing. The pressure and chaos swirling since Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance is causing cracks in a White House that until now had been marked by discipline and loyalty.
For three-plus years, the Biden administration has been mostly a restrained and staid operation, defined more by an insistence on showcasing policy and an avoidance of palace intrigue. Aides generally kept any criticism of their boss or their jobs out of the public eye. Not lately, though.
[…]
Biden’s shaky June 27 debate performance has led to an unusually public blame game, leaks of private phone calls between the president and Democrats and questions about his son Hunter Biden’s presence at the White House. It has prompted current White House officials to anonymously vent their concerns about Biden’s ability to do the job and even led to the departure of a radio journalist after details emerged that the Biden campaign had fed her and another reporter interview questions.
Not to mention all the drama playing out on Capitol Hill, where a handful of House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to step aside and there is closed-door hand-wringing by others over whether to publicly come out against the president as party leaders try to bring members to heel.
SEMAFOR’s Benjy Starlin (“Biden’s last line of defense: Mutually assured destruction“):
President Biden hasn’t made much progress convincing Democrats he’s still equipped to take on Donald Trump since their debate. But he’s made headway on another front: Making clear he will take the entire party down with him if they don’t stop trying to replace him.
In a letter to Congress on Monday, just as members were arriving for the first time since the debate to potentially share their grievances, Biden warned: “The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end.”
In a phone interview on Morning Joe around the same time, he denounced the “elites” who he accused of trying to push him out — his most combative language yet.
“If any of these guys think I shouldn’t run, run against me — go ahead, announce for president,” he said. “Challenge me at the convention.”
The message coming from the White House is clear: Biden isn’t going anywhere, and if you come after him you’ll be the one who gets blamed for undermining the party’s general election chances.
[…]
So long as opponents of his nomination believe it’s impossible to force him to step aside, any escalation of their criticism risks damaging him even further in November. And the worse his standing gets, the more his party is likely to suffer up and down the ballot.
Democrats don’t sound entirely ready to believe him — for now. After all, the entire reason his critics think their more gentle appeals to him might work is that he’s the kind of politician who usually does care about the health of his party and his legacy within it. Many of the “elites” that he decried are the kinds of elected leaders, liberal commentators, and advocacy groups he’s cultivated relationships with across five decades. A number of Senate Democrats still sounded unwilling to concede that he’ll be the nominee as of Monday night.
But Biden’s big advantage here is that it really is almost impossible to force him to step aside; he already won the support of the overwhelming majority of convention delegates, who are required to support him. Some Democrats have politely alluded to Biden having a big decision to make, or suggested he talk with his family, in the hopes of giving him space to potentially leave on his own. But if that doesn’t work, the next move would be to organize members to demand he pass the torch — perhaps privately to start, but then loudly if he refuses.
NPR (“Democrats remain split over Biden’s future in the party“):
Despite mounting pressure over the weekend from Democrats calling on Biden to step aside from the campaign, the proverbial dam did not break when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill.
Public calls for Biden to step aside slowed to a near standstill with just one member, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-NJ, speaking out on Tuesday.
“I know that President Biden and his team have been true public servants and have put the country and the best interests of democracy first and foremost in their considerations,” Sherrill wrote in a statement. “And because I know President Biden cares deeply about the future of our country, I am asking that he declare that he won’t run for reelection and will help lead us through a process toward a new nominee.”
No other House or Senate Democrats joined the push for the president to withdraw as the 2024 presidential nominee, but lawmakers leaving a pair of closed door party meetings on both sides of the Capitol did not emerge on the same page. The private worries about what Biden remaining on the top of the ticket means for the prospects of Democrats to flip the House and keep control of the Senate persists.
[…]
House Democrats huddled in a private meeting Tuesday morning at the Democratic National Committee headquarters close to the Capitol for close to two hours. Lawmakers were not allowed to bring phones, and the recommendation to those leaving the session was not to discuss the conversation with the media, according to members leaving the meeting. Top leaders left through a back entrance, avoiding reporters.
Most members exiting the meeting barely spoke to the flood of reporters waiting outside, with some simply saying it’s good to have a “family conversation” and the discussion is “exactly what we should be doing as a party.”
Asked about any consensus in the room, Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver deadpanned: “the consensus was not to talk to you guys.”
California Rep. Lou Correa, who backs Biden, said the “vast, vast majority” of those who spoke up during the private session support Biden as the nominee.
“I was surprised how much support Biden had in that room, not that it matters, because the voters, they’ve already chosen their nominee,” he told reporters. He admitted there was “some concern, but I didn’t really see a lot of people saying he shouldn’t be the guy.”
WSJ (“Democrats’ Effort to Push Biden Off Ticket Hits Uncertainty“):
An effort by some Democrats to seek an alternative to President Biden as the party’s nominee faced new uncertainty Tuesday, with frustrated lawmakers struggling to find a path forward after the president said he was dead set against stepping aside.
The situation remained in flux, after House and Senate Democrats held conference meetings for the first time since Biden flopped at June’s presidential debate. His performance heightened concerns that the 81-year-old incumbent couldn’t beat former President Donald Trump and may not be fit enough for another four years even if he did win.
Lawmakers aired their frustrations with their predicament, but a concerted push to install a new nominee didn’t emerge, even as a seventh House Democrat publicly called for Biden to make way for a new candidate. Private meetings ended without consensus, leaving the stare-down without a clear resolution less than four months until Election Day.
[…]
Sen. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) told colleagues he didn’t think Biden would prevail this fall. Later, speaking to CNN, he said he thinks Trump is on track to “maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House.” He said the White House “has done nothing to really demonstrate that they have a plan to win.” But he declined to say Biden should step aside.
Inside House Democrats’ own closed-door meeting, the mood was somber, with some lawmakers shedding tears in an emotionally wrenching gathering. Phones and Apple Watches were confiscated to prevent instant leaks. Lawmakers who have called for Biden to step aside stood before the room and told colleagues that the party needs a different candidate. Most lawmakers stood by Biden, however, saying the debate was one bad night and pointing to his successes, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
[…]
One person familiar with the meeting said the party seemed evenly split on Biden. “One-third of the caucus wants him gone, one-third want him to stay, and one-third are resigned he is the nominee but think he is going to lose.”
Axios (“Biden’s incredible shrinking path to victory“):
Two weeks into the post-debate meltdown, Democrats have found themselves in arguably the worst of all scenarios. Biden, with an approval rating hovering around 37%, is weaker and more politically vulnerable than ever. But he insists he’s not going anywhere.
The Democratic Party is fractured and demoralized. Its leaders have closed ranks around Biden, but the enthusiasm is gone. Many Democrats fear Biden could cost them enormously down-ballot.
Dissenters — even Democratic celebrities like the “Pod Save America” crew of former Obama aides — have been tarnished as “Trump enablers” for questioning whether Biden should continue.
From now until the election, Biden’s every fumble or stumble will risk reigniting a news cycle about his age. It’s a vulnerability that will never disappear — and can only get worse with time.
(I took the liberty of removing extraneous formatting.)
In “A Late Play by the Biden Campaign: Running Out the Clock,” NYT reporters Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg state the obvious:
President Biden’s resistance to pressure to end his re-election bid appears to be a strategy aimed at running out the clock, a play to leave his party so little time to come up with another candidate that his opponents stand down.
Every day that Mr. Biden defies pressure to step aside, the prospects, and logistics, of replacing him become more untenable, and riskier. And the potential of weeks of Democratic infighting, as a united Republican Party nominates former President Donald J. Trump, may start to look worse than rallying behind Mr. Biden, no matter the concerns about the 81-year-old president’s health and ability to defeat Mr. Trump.
[…]
The calendar is on Mr. Biden’s side. In the coming days, attention will turn to Mr. Trump, who is expected to name a running mate before his party gathers next week in Milwaukee to nominate him for a second term. Mr. Biden will be somewhat out of the public spotlight, focusing on the behind-the-scenes campaign to keep nervous Democrats in line.
There are 35 days between July 18, when Mr. Trump is set to accept his party’s nomination in Milwaukee, and Aug. 22, when Mr. Biden is set to accept his party’s nomination in Chicago. But the Biden campaign, working with the Democratic National Committee, appears ready to compress the calendar even further.
The party is planning a virtual roll-call vote weeks before the convention is gaveled to order on Aug. 19, a move that appears meant to leave little to no doubt about who will be on top of the Democratic ticket this November.
None of this is binding; the party sets the rules, and the party can change the rules. And Mr. Biden, for all his talk this week of sticking in the race, could change his mind, particularly if another bout of discouraging polls, or another performance like the one he had in his debate with Mr. Trump, shakes the party’s confidence and encourages more Democratic defections.
Mr. Biden’s show of defiance — portraying himself as standing up against elites, even as polling suggests that most voters believe he is too old to run — may be an act of self-preservation or a sophisticated political maneuver on the part of the president and his political team. But in either event, it has limited the party’s options and flexibility should he step aside. (It is technically possible but politically unfeasible for the Democratic National Committee to vote to replace him if he does not voluntarily decide not to seek re-election.)
There is no handbook for what a party should do to replace a presumptive nominee after the primary season is finished: how to vet and test potential replacements without the benefit of candidates enduring the voter examination and candidate training that comes with a primary. The ideas being floated require the kind of consensus in the party that gets only more difficult with the attenuated calendar that is emerging.
Their colleague Annie Karnie (“On Capitol Hill, Democrats Panic About Biden but Do Nothing“):
Senator Christopher S. Murphy, an ambitious young Democrat from Connecticut, went on television on Sunday with a carefully worded warning to President Biden about the viability of his campaign.
“This week is going to be absolutely critical; I think the president needs to do more,” Mr. Murphy said, arguing that Mr. Biden needed to hold a town hall and participate in unscripted events because “the clock is ticking” for him to put to rest the doubts about his candidacy raised by a disastrous debate performance. Multiple times, Mr. Murphy emphasized his deadline, saying that he, as well as voters, must see more action “this week.”
Senator Michael Bennet, the Colorado Democrat who briefly ran for president himself, said Mr. Biden had to “reassure the American people that he can run a vigorous campaign to defeat Donald Trump.”
Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a senior member of the Democratic leadership team, put out a statement that passed for fighting words, saying that the president “must do more to demonstrate that he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump.”
So far, Mr. Biden has done none of that.
And yet, Democrats on Capitol Hill are stifling their doubts and falling in line behind him anyway.
Having spent the last week and a half in various stages of private panic and public skepticism about Mr. Biden’s viability as a candidate and whispering among themselves about what the best way to push him aside might be — a strongly worded letter? a White House meeting? a high-level intervention? — top Democrats on Tuesday settled on a strategy many of them conceded could be disastrous: They would do nothing, at least for now.
“As I’ve said before, I’m with Joe,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said multiple times at a news conference after a closed-door Senate lunch. The lunch gave Democrats their first opportunity after a weeklong recess to gather in person and discuss how aggressive or public they wanted to be in standing up to a defiant party leader who has unequivocally refused to step aside on his own.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, explicitly told colleagues on a private call on Sunday afternoon that Mr. Biden should withdraw from the race. But by Tuesday as he made his way into a House caucus meeting, he was backtracking, saying that any concerns he harbored were “beside the point” and that Mr. Biden was “going to be our nominee, and we all have to support him.”
Thirteen years ago, Matt Yglesias an observation that was simultaneously brilliant and obvious once stated: “The Most Important Rule Of Surviving A Political Sex Scandal Is: Don’t Resign!” While being a doddering old man is not a scandal, Biden is demonstrating the same principle. His party has no realistic way of forcing him out, at least not without incurring damage worse than keeping him on the ticket. So, if only the Lord Almighty can tell him to drop out, he’s going to be on the ticket come November absent divine intervention.
