President Joe Biden has made clear he has no plans to exit the presidential race against Donald Trump. Democratic lawmakers and fundraisers who want him to step aside for Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else now know they’ll have to give in or push Biden much harder.
Some prominent Democrats have signaled their support for Biden this week. House Minority LeaderHakeem Jeffriesof New York told reporters on Monday that “I support Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket.” Prominent progressives in the House, likeAlexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, have also offered continuing public support for Biden. Sen.John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a key Biden ally, urged Biden doubters “to get a spine or grow a set.”
But as the president prepared to host a historic NATO summit, Jeffries convened a closed-door meeting with other Democratic lawmakers, some of whom fear Biden’s weakness will sink their own reelection bids, to air differences. Senate Dems used their weekly lunch on Tuesday to discuss Biden’s candidacy.
No clear verdict has yet emerged from either meeting. Asked whether Democrats were on the same page on Biden’s future, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee warned, “We’re not even in the same book.”
Biden gave a rousing speech at the NATO summit on Tuesday night, touting the alliance's strength and focusing heavily on the war in Ukraine — announcing that the US and its partners will provide air defense systems to Kyiv. Unlike in the debate, the president was forceful and didn't repeatedly struggle to string sentences together, though he was reading from a teleprompter.
We'll be watching to see if Biden's performance at the NATO summit will be enough to prove the naysayers wrong. Meanwhile, Michael Bennet of Colorado on Tuesday became the first Democratic senator to publicly state that Biden can't beat Trump in November, which is indicative of the uphill battle the president faces in this regard.