Despite President Biden’s public insistence that he’s “firmly committed” to sticking out the 2024 race, his campaign national co-chair says the 81-year-old is still seeking “input” from colleagues.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a longtime Biden ally who serves from the president’s home state, repeatedly refused on Thursday to unequivocally state that the president won’t call it quits.
“In my conversations with the president, he’s been asking for input,” Coons told CNN.
“He’s been asking from all of us who talk to him regularly for advice, for counsel, for input on the polls, on the opinion of our colleagues, but he has communicated to every Democrat in writing that he intends to continue this campaign,” he added.
Last week, Biden penned a letter to congressional Democrats declaring that he is “firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump.”
Biden further proclaimed “clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Despite that assertion, a growing chorus of prominent Democrats has been nudging him both publicly and privately to drop out after being rattled by the shock of his debate performance last month in which he appeared to struggle to hold his train of thought.
At least 21 congressional Democrats have come forward so far and publicly called on him to step aside.
Coons, 60, was coy about whether Biden is still giving serious thought as to whether he will remain in the race.
“I think he weighs very seriously the input of those trusted advisers, those who served with him. And beyond that, I’m not going to get into the detail,” Coons said. “I think he deserves the respect to being able to reflect on this moment.”
The Delaware senator was pressed at least three times about whether Biden is still mulling the possibility of exiting the race and said he shouldn’t comment “without direct knowledge.”
Coons admitted that he hadn’t spoken with Biden in a few days. He also argued that the president is the most formidable Democrat to take on Trump.
“What you’re hearing from many Democrats is concerns that Donald Trump does not belong back in the White House,” he said.
“That unifies all Democrats, not just Democrats, but Donald Trump’s own vice president, secretary of defense, chief of staff, national security adviser, all the core folks who served right around Donald Trump, think he should never be reelected,” he went on.
Earlier in the day, Biden-Harris principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, was emphatic to reporters that the president doesn’t plan to drop out.
“The president has said it several times: he’s staying in this race,” he said. “I talk to the president every single day in some form … He is usually fact-checking me on a statistic that I got wrong.”
On Wednesday, an ABC News report emerged that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) privately and forcefully encouraged Biden to step aside over the weekend.
A spokesperson for Schumer did not explicitly deny that report, but rather, called it “idle speculation.”
In addition, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have privately shared with Biden their doubts about his ability to win, according to additional reports.
For the most part, their spokespeople have not explicitly denied those reports, but haven’t confirmed them either.
Ironically, Biden has gotten a bit of a boost from the left flank of his party amid the mutiny.
“I can’t tell you all how shameful it feels to hear all these leaks about what Democratic leaders are saying and not to have a single one of them out here confirming or denying it,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) posted on X.
“It’s a lack of leadership and it’s making all Democrats look bad. Whatever this mess leads to will not undo the damage that has already been inflicted. May God help us all,” she added.