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After his concerning and disastrous performance during the presidential debate, Joe Biden has vehemently declared that he is “firmly committed to staying in this race,” ignoring calls from members within his own party urging him to drop out.
Following a closed-door meeting among congressional leaders on Sunday, however, several House Democrats reportedly told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., that the incumbent has to exit the race, believing that he cannot win the election against President Donald Trump
According to a report from Fox News, the consensus among several Democrat leadership officials was to abandon Biden, and alternatively court his heir apparent Kamala Harris to be at the top of the presidential ticket.
Ranking House Democrats who allegedly voiced their concerns privately during the meeting included Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Mark Takano, D-Calif., Don Beyer, D-Va., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., the report found.
In addition, even more congressional Democrats—though not explicitly urging him to drop out—expressed their concerns over Biden’s inability to win reelection, or even govern.
Once news of the meeting leaked, Beyer issued a statement boasting his support for Biden, saying that he supported the Biden-Harris ticket, and looked forward “to helping defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Smith, meanwhile, failed to flip-flop in his opinion after the report leaked, publicly calling on Biden to pass the torch on to another candidate during an exclusive interview with CNN on Monday.
Including Smith, six total House Democrats have publicly asked Joe Biden to step aside, such as Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Mike Quigley, D-Ill., and Angie Craig, D-Minn., CBS News reported.
As of Monday, neither Reps. Nadler or Takano have responded to reports of their dissent.
In the upper chamber, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, allegedly began organizing a group of Senate Democrats to discuss Biden’s path forward in the race, Axios reported, leading to speculation that many congressional leaders would tell the incumbent to step down.
Axios added that Warner’s meeting was ultimately canceled because potential details leaking made it impossible to have a private conversation on the matter.
Instead, Senate Democrats are scheduled to meet as a whole on Tuesday during their regular caucus meeting.
With the legislature back in session this week, it is likely that even more congressional Democrats will beg the incumbent to end his reelection campaign, particularly if his presence on the ticket hurts their own candidacies.
Jeffries’ meeting with Democrat leadership was scheduled following the incumbent’s brief 22-minute interview on Friday evening with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, for which success was dependent in order to convince Democrats that Biden is able to defeat President Trump.
Specifically, Biden, who will be 82 years old in November, needed to assuage Americans who are concerned that his age and cognitive acuity prove he is unfit to serve as Commander-in-Chief.
The ABC interview instead likely worsened fears among Democrats, as Biden doubled down on his refusal to exit the race unless “the Lord Almighty were to come down and say, ‘Joe, get outta the race.'”
When asked how he would feel if he stayed in the race and lost, Biden claimed, “I’ll feel good as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”
In reaction to the interview, ABC News Chief Washington correspondent Johnathan Karl noted, “Biden looked better and certainly more coherent than he looked during the debate, but there’s nothing in this interview that is calming the nerves of jittery Democrats who fear that Joe Biden is on a trajectory to lose this race, to Donald Trump.”
Nonetheless, Biden has continuously refused to leave the race, writing in a letter to Congressional Democrats on Monday that he “wouldn’t be running” if he did not “absolutely believe” he was “the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Biden then reiterated how the party is set to nominate a candidate in just 42 days, which would leave the Democrat Party with very little time to campaign should they replace him as their nominee.
“Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” Biden wrote.
As RSBN previously reported, it would be politically detrimental for Democrats to simply replace Biden, especially during this late in the race.
Unless he drops out on his own, Democrats would likely have no choice but to renominate Biden. If they decide to replace him, more than 1,976 of the 3,894 delegates—who already pledged to support Biden—would have to defy the will of their own primary voters and refuse to vote for him during the DNC’s virtual nomination this summer.
A brokered convention would then take place, meaning that these delegates would be responsible for selecting their new nominee only three months before the general election, leaving the candidate almost no time to run a campaign.
It is also very rare for a party to snub their party’s sitting president to choose another candidate as their nominee. In fact, no sitting president has lost their party’s nomination since President Chester A. Arthur in 1884.
Of the remaining 44 U.S. presidents, just four other sitting presidents lost their party’s primary, including Presidents John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and Andrew Johnson.
With the exception of Franklin Pierce, each of these sitting presidents who were replaced during their primaries saw their party’s respective new candidate ultimately lose the general election.