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Biden’s ability to win back skeptical Democrats is being tested at a perilous moment for his campaign

Biden’s ability to win back skeptical Democrats is being tested at a perilous moment for his campaign

Washington — Despite a week of campaign stops, interviews and insistence that he is the best candidate to take on Republican Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has done little to ease the pressure to withdraw from the 2024 race.

Biden faces key options this weekend that could shape the direction of the country and his party as the country heads toward the November elections, with the GOP energized after the Republican nominating convention to return Trump to the White House.

Nearly 35 Democrats in Congress say it’s time for Biden to leave the race — 12 are coming forward on Friday alone — and more lawmakers are expected to weigh in in the coming days. Donors have voiced their concerns. And an organization calling on Biden to “pass the torch” planned a rally at the White House on Saturday.

“There’s no joy in recognizing that he shouldn’t be our nominee in November,” said Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, one of the Democrats who pushed him out of the race. “But the stakes of this election are too high, and we can’t risk the focus of the campaign being on anything other than Donald Trump.”

The stalemate has become increasingly untenable for the party and its leaders a month before the Democratic National Convention, which should be a unifying moment to nominate their incumbent president to take on Trump. Instead, the party finds itself at a crossroads not seen in generations.

It creates a stark contrast with Republicans who, after years of bitter and chaotic infighting over Trump, have effectively embraced the former president’s far-right takeover of the GOP, despite his criminal conviction in the hush-money case and pending federal indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

From his beach house in Delaware, Biden, 81, is in isolation with a COVID infection but also politically isolated with a small circle of family and closest advisers. White House physician Kevin O’Connor said Friday that the president still had a dry cough and hoarseness but that his COVID symptoms had improved.

The president’s team insisted he is ready to return to the campaign trail next week to push back against what he called a “dark vision” Trump has laid out.

“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said in a statement Friday. “The stakes are high and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”

But outside the enclave of Rehoboth, debate and emotions are running high.

A donor meeting with about 300 people Friday was described by one attendee as a waste of time. He was granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Although the person praised Vice President Kamala Harris, who spoke for five minutes, the rest of the time was filled by others who brushed aside the donors’ concerns, the attendee said.

Not only do Democrats disagree over whether Biden should stay in the race or step down, there is also no consensus on how to choose a successor.

Democrats who favor Biden’s departure don’t appear to have laid out a plan for what happens next. Very few lawmakers have mentioned Harris in their statements, and some have said they favor an open nomination process that would throw party support behind a new nominee.

Democratic Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont have both called for Biden to withdraw from the race and said they support an open nominating process at the convention.

“If it were open, it would make the eventual nominee stronger,” Welch said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Other Democrats say it would be politically unthinkable to ignore Harris, the nation’s first female vice president, who is Black and Southeast Asian. And it’s logistically unfeasible, with a virtual nomination vote scheduled for early next month, before the Democratic convention on Aug. 19 in Chicago.

Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who has been among those calling on Biden to resign, explicitly backed Harris as a replacement.

“To provide Democrats with a strong, viable path to winning the White House, I am calling on President Biden to release his representatives and empower Vice President Harris to step forward and become the Democratic nominee for president,” McCollum said in her statement.

It’s unclear what more the president can do to turn the tide and win back lawmakers and Democratic voters who are wary of his ability to unseat Trump and serve another term after his faltering debate performances last month.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say Biden should drop out of the presidential race and let his party nominate another candidate, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, undermining his post-debate claim that “mainstream Democrats” still support him even as some “big names” turn against him.

At the same time, a majority of Democrats believe Kamala Harris would do well in the top spot, according to a separate poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Biden, who sent a defiant letter to congressional Democrats immediately after his debate performance vowing to stay in the race, has yet to visit Capitol Hill to drum up support. Senators and representatives have not noticed.

The president has held a series of virtual talks with various factions over the past week, some of which ended badly.

During a call with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a Democrat, Rep. Mike Levin of California, told Biden to step aside. During another call with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Biden became defensive when Rep. Jared Huffman of California asked him to consider talking to top party leaders about the way forward.

Huffman was one of four Democratic lawmakers who called on Friday for Biden to end his re-election campaign.

At the same time, Biden still has strong supporters. He received an endorsement from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus campaign arm on Friday and is backed by leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.