Almost every day for weeks, another elected Democrat has either told President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race or suggested he think about it.
On Thursday, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) came as close as possible to saying Biden should bow out without actually saying so.
“That’s his decision to make, but certainly there’s more and more indications that that would be in the best interests of the country, I think,” Hickenlooper told Reuters.
Hickenlooper’s comment followed Wednesday’s more forceful statement by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, likely the next Democratic senator from California and the highest-profile Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw.
So far, only 20 elected Democrats have said the president should let someone else face Donald Trump in November, but it seems likely the number will grow. Many other lawmakers have voiced concerns to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who in turn related those concerns directly to the president over the weekend.
Biden and his campaign have insisted he’s still running and that he can win, as they have ever since his bad debate performance on June 27 prompted Democrats to panic about this candidacy. Polls have borne out concerns that the June debate would weaken Biden’s support among likely voters.
“I don’t know how many times President Biden can answer this question,” campaign spokesperson Quentin Fulks said Thursday on MSNBC. “He will be the Democratic nominee. And we will beat Donald Trump in November.”
A White House source told Reuters Thursday they believed former Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave Schiff the nod to drop his statement calling on Biden to drop out. “Nancy is all over this. She doesn’t miss. Schiff wouldn’t move without her approval,” the source said.
A source close to Pelosi, granted anonymity to speak freely, told HuffPost that Pelosi isn’t orchestrating the pressure campaign to nudge Biden off the campaign trail, but she’s not an idle bystander, either.
“I do think she’s looking at the whole board and making moves,” said this source.
Pelosi herself has not said Biden should step aside, but she said shortly after the debate that it was fair to question whether he was up for the job.
Several other developments on Thursday seemed designed to boost the pressure on Biden to bow out, including a Washington Post report that former president Barack Obama is skeptical of Biden’s chances in November, an Axios report that top Democrats increasingly consider Biden’s withdrawal inevitable, and a Semafor report that a major fundraiser warned Biden donors think he’ll lose and won’t write checks. The stories relied on anonymous sources.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) complained about the anonymous reports on Thursday — and the fact that the subjects of the stories weren’t denying them or confirming them. Progressives such as Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have been a base of support for Biden on Capitol Hill.
“I can’t tell you all how shameful it feels to hear all these leaks about what Democratic leaders are staying and not to have a single one of them out here confirming or denying it,” Omar said on social media. “It’s a lack of leadership and it’s making all Democrats look bad.”
Also on Thursday, The New York Times reported that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), an influential voice among Democrats on Capitol Hill, sent Biden a letter earlier this month in which he used a baseball analogy to suggest the president make a graceful exit.
“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics,” Raskin wrote.
Jennifer Bendery contributed reporting.
