Several influential House Democrats joined a growing list of party members calling on Joe Biden to step aside and let someone else run in 2024 in a weekend crisis call, according to reports.
The House Democratic caucus convened for crisis talks with Hakeem Jeffries, the chamber’s minority leader, late Sunday afternoon as lawmakers prepare to face the media on Capitol Hill when Congress returns to business the next day.
Already, growing fractures are visible as party members take opposing positions on whether the president should remain the party’s nominee after a disastrous debate showing against Donald Trump last week.
During that call with Jeffries, Reps Jerry Nadler, Susan Wild, Adam Smith and Mark Takano all came out in opposition to Biden running again, according to multiple news agencies.
Rep Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, also strongly undercut the president’s argument for staying in the race and suggested that Kamala Harris, his vice president, would have a much stronger chance at winning.
Nadler, a close ally of Nancy Pelosi, is the top-ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee; Wild and Smith hold the same respective positions on the Ethics and Armed Services committees.
Together, the three become the highest-ranking members of the House Democratic caucus to call on Biden to step aside. Mark Takano, a congressman from California, joined them on the same call while Don Beyer, a congressman from swing-state Virginia, undercut the president’s message so seriously that a spokesman had to issue a statement clarifying that Beyer was continuing to support the president’s campaign so long as it lasted.
“He’s clearly very, very fragile. Fragile physically, although his handshake is very firm. Also really has trouble putting two sentences together,” said Beyer on the call with Jeffries and other Democrats, according to Punchbowl News.
He added: “I also believe Kamala is in a great position to win in November, probably a much better position than Joe.”
Beyer’s spokesman clarified that the congressman “supports President Biden and said so on this call”, and argued that “any reporting to the contrary is a misunderstanding of what he said”.
The congressman in his own remarks also made clear that he was a “team player” and would support whatever decision the president made.
Their reported positions came the same day that Adam Schiff, the Democratic House impeachment manager and now Senate nominee in California, made an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press and criticized Biden directly for his response to the reaction that has played out across his party in the wake of a raspy, timid performance at the debate where his mind appeared to wander mid-point in some instances.
The congressman took issue with how Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday that he would not personally be remorseful if Trump won the 2024 election as long as he gave the race his all.
“This is not just about whether he gave it the best college try, but rather whether he made the right decision to run or pass the torch. That is the most important decision for him to make right now,” Schiff said.
Monday’s return to Capitol Hill is likely to drive up the number of Democrats calling on Biden to drop out.
“The s*** is going to hit the fan on Monday, when Congress returns,” one House Democrat said to Axios for a piece published on Sunday. “People are scared about their own races. But they’re also worried about the country, and about democracy.”
Polls show Biden trailing the former president – who is now convicted of 34 felony counts related to a hush money scheme to cover up allegations of an affair with a porn star – in most of the battleground swing states he will need to win re-election.