Democratic lawmakers have tried all sorts of responses to Biden's dilemma — some evasive, some creative.
Tuesday's retraction from Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, who had called for a new nominee just two days earlier: Whether you have concerns or not is irrelevant.
Restatement of the facts by Rep. Ro Khanna of Fremont during a televised interview with the Washington Post: The reality is that the president has said he will run.
The optimistic occurrence of Representative Lou Correa of Santa Ana: 80 is the new 60.
The anticipated tsunami of Democrats on Capitol Hill calling for President Biden to drop his reelection campaign has turned into a trickle of public dissent, contained by a small wall of support. Many lawmakers have dodged reporters, avoided the question or, when pressed, said what they had to say in hopes of putting behind them concerns about Biden’s decline or whether he is prepared to defeat former President Trump.
Their answers say as much about their own political motivations (and the imperative politicians place on self-preservation) as they do about Biden. Polls show a majority of voters want Biden to step aside, and he has fallen even further behind Trump in many head-to-head polls, including an AARP poll released Tuesday that showed him 5 percentage points down in Wisconsin, a must-win state.
“It's a question of caution, of political survival instincts. A lot of Democrats don't want to take any chances,” said Tim Miller, who worked in communications strategy at the highest levels of Republican politics before becoming an outspoken critic of Trump and leaving the party.
“There are a lot of loud voices that will shout at you on social media and on your office phones,” he added, arguing that those voices do not represent the consensus among voters.
Behind the scenes, elected Democrats are deeply concerned about Biden’s diminishing stamina and ability to defeat Trump, according to congressional aides and others who have spoken to them, along with public comments from some lawmakers. The mood at a meeting of House Democrats on Tuesday at Democratic National Committee headquarters was described as “sad and frustrated” by a person familiar with the closed-door meeting, who would only describe it anonymously. Senate Democrats held a similar meeting later in the day.
But, at least for now, Biden appears to have avoided the kind of mass public defections that would force him to act. He could face a new round of doubts if new polls show him sinking further or if he stumbles during a public event like his planned news conference on Thursday. But the more time he buys, the less likely he will be to drop out of the race.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared to be grappling with that reality Monday night as she attempted to close the book on another semi-endorsement of sorts that sidestepped the question of whether she should stay in the race. “Joe Biden is our nominee. He’s not leaving this race,” she told reporters. “He’s in this race and I support him.”
Jim Manley, who spent decades in the Senate devising communications strategies for Democratic leaders, said he has been surprised by the reactions, especially the unwillingness of many House Democrats to speak up when they normally rush to the chambers.
“The president believes that time is his friend. Many members are not prepared to face this. They are simply buying time,” he said.
But there is also a collective action problem. Lawmakers like Nadler and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia backed off their calls for a new candidate after they failed to mobilize others. A former Republican leadership aide said party leaders are waiting for rank-and-file members to act while rank-and-file members wait for their leaders.
“The president has probably benefited from the lack of a really organized opposition,” said John Lawrence, who spent 38 years as a Democratic aide, eight of them as chief of staff to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But it's also not the nature of members of Congress, who tend to value their own reelection more than the presidency or even which party controls the House and Senate, said Lawrence, author of “Arc of Power: Inside Nancy Pelosi's Speakership, 2005-2010.” Going against a sitting president, causing chaos at the top of the ticket or shaking up an institution are actions that run counter to those goals, he said.
“Relatively few revolutions are driven by people who are in power,” he said. “That is not the nature of revolutions.”
Republicans have been tested by Trump far more times than Democrats, as their nominee has faced two impeachments, multiple impeachments, a conviction, calls to suspend the Constitution and a series of shocking statements that began before he took office in 2017.
“I don’t want to equate a candidate’s age with not wanting to talk about his racism, his bigotry, his lies or his conspiracy theories,” Miller said. “The motivations are the same, which are political survival and not wanting to cause trouble.”
Times staff writer Faith Pinho contributed to this report.
