(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden is “absolutely” determined to remain in the presidential race and will resume campaigning next week, a top aide said Friday, even as allies have begun seeing his exit from the race as an inevitability.
“Joe Biden is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump, and we believe on this campaign we are built for the close election that we’re in and we see the path forward,” Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chairwoman, said in an interview with MSNBC.
But even as the the longtime aide insisted there was no chance Biden planned to drop out, NBC News reported that the president’s family members had discussed what a possible exit plan would look like. The report underscored the extent to which the unprecedented pressure campaign from party elders and donors has rattled Biden’s reelection effort, drawing in even his fiercely protective family.
O’Malley Dillon’s appearance on Morning Joe — a favorite program of the president and many of his liberal supporters — was intended as the clearest signal yet that Biden, isolating in Delaware after testing positive for Covid-19, remains determined to stay in the race. But few Democrats outside of Biden’s Wilmington headquarters believe his campaign remains viable.
Time for a graceful exit is running short.
Trump, accepted the Republican nomination to great fanfare Thursday night in Milwaukee, unifying his party as he recalled his narrow escape from an assassin’s bullet. But the meandering address, dotted with references to fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter, his positive relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and an attack on union leadership, only underscored to many Democrats how the election should be winnable.
Democrats gather for their own nominating convention in a month and party officials have indicated they could move as soon as the beginning of August to cement Biden’s position on the ballot.
As the winner of the Democratic primary, the decision is indeed Biden’s alone to make. The president, 81, could ultimately insist on waging a defiant, solitary final campaign in hopes of proving everyone wrong.
The uncertainty has already left Democrats in a lurch.
Party leaders are eager to take the fight to Trump, but Democrats lose the opportunity to go on the offensive each day that the Biden melodrama dominates the national conversation. A poll released Thursday by CBS News showed Trump with a majority — 52% — of likely voters.
“We’re moving toward the convention. There has to be decisions made,” said Amy Dacey, former chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee.
Since Biden’s debate performance three weeks ago set off panic among his fellow party members, the belief in Washington has been that only senior leaders, like Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi, could force him to withdraw. In recent days, they have taken steps to do just that.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Obama has told allies that Biden’s path to victory is greatly diminished and that he needs to seriously consider if his campaign remains viable. It was a stinging rebuke to Biden’s campaign from his onetime running mate, who remains one of the most popular Democrats.
Pelosi told Biden in a private conversation recently that polls show he cannot beat Trump and that his continued candidacy could rob Democrats of the chance to win back the House in November, CNN reported Thursday. Those concerns echoed ones raised in closed—door meetings with Biden by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The top Democrats have said little publicly about what they think Biden ought to do, but the steady flow of leaks belies a frustration in many corners of the party with the president’s entrenchment. The fact that none of the lawmakers explicitly denied their role only fanned speculation leaders were coordinating the defenestration behind closed doors.
It’s also opened the door for even more prominent Democrats to publicly pressure Biden to drop out. Late Thursday, Jon Tester — the Montana Democrat who is among the most vulnerable senators this cycle — issued a statement calling for the president to step aside.
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Resistance from Schumer and Jeffries helped prompt Democrats to hold off on formally nominating Biden this month in a virtual roll call, with party officials saying there will be no delegate votes before Aug. 1. That buys Democrats skeptical of Biden more time to carry out their pressure campaign, but it also prolongs the infighting over his candidacy.
Despite the growing chorus calling on Biden to drop out, the president’s commitment to running has remained steadfast and there has been no change in his views, a senior Biden aide said Friday.
“I’m not here to say that this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign. There’s no doubt that it has been and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support,” O’Malley Dillon said. “But it has been a small movement.”
But there were other signs that the president has become open to the possibility of being replaced on the ballot. ABC reported that Biden asked for polling on how Vice President Kamala Harris would perform, citing an anonymous senior administration official.
Chris Coons, a Democratic senator from Biden’s home state of Delaware, said the president had been asking for advice on polls and about his standing among senators.
“I think he weighs very seriously the input of those he trusts and admires, those who’ve served with him,” Coons said in an interview with CNN, adding that Biden deserved time “to make the path forward clearer for the American people.”
The president said in an interview this week with BET News he would consider ending his campaign or handing over power to Harris if he is reelected, if he had a medical condition — though he discounted the possibility of that occurring.
The vice president, who would very likely be Biden’s choice to replace him, has continued on with a full slate of events while the president remains sidelined with Covid. During a campaign stop Thursday in North Carolina, she talked about the urgency of taking on Trump, saying the Republican has been trying “to distract people” and “direct attention away from his record.”
Republicans have already mapped out lines of attack against Harris in the event she becomes the nominee. The Trump campaign on Wednesday turned down her offer to debate GOP vice presidential pick JD Vance next month because it’s unclear who “Kamala Harris picks as her running mate.”
—With assistance from Skylar Woodhouse, Riley Griffin and Josh Wingrove.