Top Democrats, swallowing fears about Biden’s candidacy, remain behind him
WASHINGTON — Top Democrats in Congress indicated on Tuesday that they were unwilling — at least for now — to mount an effort to push aside President Joe Biden even after a day of meetings in which their members expressed grave concerns about his age, mental acuity and ability to win reelection.
Both in public and behind closed doors, House and Senate Democrats from across the political spectrum, including ultraliberals in safe seats and centrists in politically vulnerable districts, have raised profound fears about Biden’s viability as a candidate. But no Democratic leader on Capitol Hill was willing to ask the president to withdraw.
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Instead, they emerged Tuesday swearing allegiance to Biden, if not exactly in enthusiastic or expansive terms.
“I’m with Joe,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, repeatedly replied, as he sidestepped multiple questions about Biden’s fitness for office.
“We are ridin’ with Biden,” Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., proclaimed nine times as he sought to shut down reporters’ queries.
Still, House and Senate Democrats left their respective private meetings Tuesday deeply fractured. Asked whether Democrats were on the same page after the discussion, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., replied, “We’re not even in the same book.”
And on Tuesday afternoon, a seventh House Democrat, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the race, saying she feared he would be unable to defeat former President Donald Trump.
“When I think of my four children and all of the rights that another Trump presidency endangers, and in light of the recent Supreme Court decision that gave inordinate power to the president of the United States, the stakes are too high — and the threat is too real — to stay silent,” Sherrill said in a statement. “I realize this is hard, but we have done hard things in pursuit of democracy since the founding of this nation. It is time to do so again.”
But other Democrats professed outrage that, even as their colleagues agonized privately about the disastrous potential consequences of Biden’s candidacy, they were unwilling to publicly call on him to drop out.
“The idea that we are going to slow walk into fascism because we don’t want to hurt somebody that we respect’s feelings?” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee who Monday became the sixth lawmaker in his party to call on Biden to drop out. “I cannot even begin to tell you how angry that makes me.”
Some senators in the luncheon privately expressed doubts about Biden’s ability to beat Trump but said they did not think it would be viable to change nominees now because Biden has shown no signs of being willing to do so.
“The fact is the president has said he is running,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said. “So that’s the lay of the land today.”
It suggested that the president’s defiance in the face of calls for his withdrawal — and his angry dismissal of questions about his age, health and stamina — has effectively sapped the will of many Democrats to challenge him.
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