The mood on Capitol Hill has turned gloomy and uncertain as Democrats wrestle with the re-election of US President Joe Biden and the extraordinary question before them: Should they stand behind his candidacy or urge the president to withdraw amid doubts about his ability to lead them to victory?
There was great tension at a meeting of Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate on Tuesday.
The talks in the House of Representatives were “sullen” and “sad,” the lawmakers said, focusing on the party chairman, who has staunchly refused to resign and who implored them in a strongly worded letter to shift their focus from him to the threat posed by Republican Donald Trump.
In the Senate, where Biden has had an illustrious career, they said even less.
Later in the day, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a seventh Democrat in the House, publicly stated that Biden should not run for re-election.
Sherrill, a military veteran, said that with Trump running for the White House, “there is too much at stake – and the threat too real – to remain silent.”
“I know this is hard, but we have done difficult things in the pursuit of democracy since the founding of this nation,” she said in a statement.
“It’s time to do this again.”
For Democrats, it could have been an opportunity to bolster their president, who remains the favorite for some despite his poor performance in the debates and public appearances, but instead plunged him deeper into a crisis over fears they could lose the White House and Congress and have to watch a Trump enter his second term.
Earlier, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said lawmakers had “had the opportunity to speak openly and fully” in a closed session and that discussions would continue.
This is a remarkable moment for the president and his party, as Democrats in Congress seriously question Biden’s place at the top of the ticket, just weeks before the Democratic convention where he is expected to be nominated for a second term.
Biden’s supporters proved to be the most vocal, and at least one key Democrat in the House of Representatives changed course and now publicly supported the president.
But an agreement was nowhere in sight and there was a strong undertone of disunity. While Senate Democrats remained publicly silent, Biden’s political future was the notable issue at stake.
When asked if there was a consensus, Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Biden’s closest supporters, said the “consensus is that Donald Trump is a threat and that should be the focus.”
At the House of Representatives’ closed session on Tuesday, there was growing concern that Biden’s continued presence in the race would shift the election around Biden’s rather than Trump’s age issues, according to one of the people in the room.
At least 20 Democratic lawmakers stood to speak during the nearly two-hour session. For many, this is an existential moment for their country in the face of a second Trump presidency.
Most of the speakers wanted Biden to end his candidacy, said another person who granted anonymity to speak about the meeting.
Many Democrats fear that not only the presidency is in danger, but also their own race for the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate – and whether the party is able to stop Trump and the conservative “Project 2025” with its plans to weaken the federal government.
“He just has to resign because he can’t win,” said Mike Quigley of Illinois.