President Joe Biden speaks during a Medal of Honor Ceremony at the White House in Washington, on July 3.Susan Walsh/The Associated Press
U.S. President Joe Biden is under increasing pressure to end his re-election bid after a debate performance that highlighted concerns about his age, and faltering attempts to contain the damage.
A growing number of elected Democrats, both publicly and privately, are pushing for Mr. Biden to bow out and allow the Democratic National Convention, which gathers next month in Chicago, to nominate a different candidate.
The urgency of the election for the party ratcheted up this week when the Supreme Court issued a decision granting Donald Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution for his official acts as president, heightening concerns about how he would use the power of the office if he returns to the White House.
Changing candidates, however, would have its own perils. For one, neither major party has chosen a presidential contender without that person winning the primaries since the 1970s. For another, a nomination battle would risk exposing the Democrats to infighting when they are trying to project unity.
Mr. Biden vowed Wednesday in a call with campaign staff not to go anywhere. “I’m running. No one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving,” he said. “I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.” The comments were ostensibly private, but the White House almost immediately leaked them to reporters and Mr. Biden’s campaign included them in a fundraising e-mail blast to supporters.
The President had lunch with Vice-President Kamala Harris, a leading contender to replace him on the ballot, and held a meeting with Democratic governors, a group that includes several other potential substitute candidates.
He also made phone calls to congressional leaders, and scheduled two radio interviews, a televised sit-down and campaign appearances in two swing states, in an effort to show he is still capable of being his party’s standard-bearer.
After the governors’ meeting, participants closed ranks around the President. Minnesota’s Tim Walz declared Mr. Biden “fit for office.” Maryland’s Wes Moore said “we’re going to have his back.”
Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, became the first legislator this week to openly call on Mr. Biden to step aside. “I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so,” he said in a statement.
A group of moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives is pushing for him to stand aside in favour of Ms. Harris, a source with knowledge of the discussions told The Globe and Mail. The Globe is not identifying the source so they could speak about details of private conversations.
Julián Castro, who was a cabinet member during Barack Obama’s presidency, said on MSNBC that “another Democrat” would have a better chance than Mr. Biden at beating Mr. Trump. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told The New York Times that it was fair to ask of the debate performance, “Is this an episode or is this a condition?”
During the 90-minute debate with Mr. Trump on June 27, Mr. Biden struggled to form sentences and spoke in a quiet, raspy voice. The President, who overcame a childhood stutter, has long had difficulty with public speaking. But the debate has spotlighted the possibility that he is suffering from more serious problems. Mr. Biden, 81, and Mr. Trump, 78, are the two oldest presidential candidates in history.
On Monday, a few days after the debate, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court found that presidents are largely immune from criminal prosecution for official acts, delaying Mr. Trump’s trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election until after November’s presidential vote.
The ruling represents an expansion of executive power at a time when Mr. Trump is campaigning on plans to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, replace government workers with political loyalists, and put regulatory agencies directly under his control.
The combination of the difficult debate and the court’s assistance to Mr. Trump makes Mr. Biden’s campaign more daunting while raising the election’s stakes. “I can’t think of a more perfect storm,” said Barbara Ann Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia. “The American democratic republic is at stake.”
The White House has long been dismissive of concerns about Mr. Biden’s age and mental acuity, even as staff stage-manage his public appearances to minimize the possibility of slip-ups. Mr. Biden typically speaks briefly from a teleprompter, for instance, and mostly avoids questions from reporters.
Mr. Biden’s response to the debate has followed this playbook.
An e-mail to supporters from Rob Flaherty, Mr. Biden’s deputy campaign manager, derided the President’s naysayers as “the bedwetting brigade.” At a fundraiser this week, Mr. Biden said his problem at the debate was jet lag from foreign travel, even though he had seven days after his overseas trips to recover. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times,” he said. “And then I came back and nearly fell asleep onstage.”
Bailing on the race, however, would be complicated. Ms. Harris, though polling better than Mr. Biden, has long engendered ambivalence and would not be a shoo-in for the nomination. With others, including state governors Gretchen Whitmer and Andy Beshear, it is unclear how they would perform on a national stage.
Polling shows Mr. Biden is running behind Mr. Trump, and that a large majority of voters believe he is too old, but none of the prospective replacements fares much better. A New York Times/Siena poll showed Mr. Trump up three points since the debate, leading Mr. Biden 49 per cent to 43 per cent.
Mr. Biden’s defenders are quick to point out that he was counted out during the 2020 primary race only to come back with a convincing victory.
Victoria Nourse, a Georgetown University law professor who worked for Mr. Biden both during his time as a senator and when he was vice-president under Barack Obama, said his debate performance was “a blip” likely brought on by a gruelling schedule. When she was on his staff, she said, it was typical for Mr. Biden to work from 6 a.m. to midnight.
“What I saw was a person who works too hard and a person who stutters,” she said of the debate. “I just don’t see this as disqualifying in any way, shape or form.”
With a report from David Shribman