Calls for President Joe Biden to step down have reached so close to his inner circle that some in the White House know he “cannot” run in 2024 and want to grant him the “grace” to step down, top Democrats say.
Key figures in the 81-year-old president’s party want a new candidate on the ticket to avoid an electoral bloodbath against Donald Trump in November 2024.
More than 30 Democrats have called on him to resign and have begun making startling claims about his cognitive decline.
The West Wing is under enormous pressure to find a way forward and is now “divided” over whether Biden should step down, confidential sources say.
“Most people know. Some will say, ‘Calm down.’ But most will say, ‘He can’t do it, just give him a break,'” said Johanna Maska, a former White House press director under President Barack Obama.
“It’s very divisive. It must be difficult for everyone at the moment,” he told DailyMail.com.
On a day when 11 House Democrats and a growing number called on Biden to step back, she referenced a longtime aide who asked to “just give him the grace to make the decision himself instead of everybody coming out like that.”
A split within the party over President Biden’s future became apparent on Friday, with a number of lawmakers calling for him to step down. Sources also point to divisions within the White House itself over the best way forward.
“I think they do. And I think Biden doesn’t want to watch the debate because he knows how bad it was,” the Press Advance podcast host said.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook, ever since incumbent Democrats have been in the House of Representatives across the country. Those in key districts feel like they are between a rock and a hard place,” former New York Rep. Steve Israel, who used to chair the House Democratic campaign arm, told DailyMail.com.
“The Republicans are headed to their destination and we’re in the backseat arguing about whether we should take a detour at the next exit,” said Israel, now at Cornell University’s Institute of Politics.
“It’s a vicious cycle. Every week a more negative narrative is built than the last,” he said. As for Biden, “I feel like the narrative is getting the better of him right now.”
The latest signs of internal turmoil come amid reports that members of Biden’s family have been discussing what an exit would look like, with party members divided over whether a Biden withdrawal would amount to handing the wheel to Kamala Harris with an endorsement or setting up a novel process.
That followed reports that even members of Biden’s Cabinet were having “private discussions” about whether staff should intercede, with one House member saying the message is getting through to Biden.
There are risks that the increasingly public pressure — which included a series of op-eds and statements by lawmakers hailing Biden but calling on him to go — could blow over spectacularly, depressing some of the millions of voters who cast ballots for Biden and whom Biden needs to energize again in battleground states where he is trailing Donald Trump.
“It could also turn off a lot of people,” Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told DailyMail.com.
‘This could backfire and not help us achieve the common good, and the common good is winning elections at all levels.
Passing the torch? Vice President Kamala Harris and her two great-nieces went out for ice cream on Friday, a favorite pastime for President Biden, who is in isolation due to COVID-19.
Some Democrats have questioned how Donald Trump, 78, has managed to maintain his lead in the polls over Biden, 81, even as he faces multiple criminal prosecutions.
Asked about Biden’s status, Seawright praised the 81-year-old president’s energy on the campaign trail as he grapples with a COVID-19 diagnosis after slowly making his way down the smaller set of stairs of Air Force One after a detour to his beach house in Delaware.
“I spent time with the president interacting with voters. The Joe Biden I’ve seen is the Joe Biden I saw campaigning in South Carolina just a few months ago for the primaries,” he said. “It’s crystal clear that while lawmakers may have one opinion, the voters who ultimately decide the fate of lawmakers have a totally different opinion.”
Officials have spoken of Vice President Kamala Harris’s total loyalty to Biden in this difficult moment. But there was a display of how Biden might pass the torch to her one day when she stopped at an ice cream shop and indulged in her favorite sweet treat on Friday.
“This weekend, it’s going to be Nixon country,” joked one veteran Senate leadership aide at the Republican convention.
It was another brutal day for the Biden camp on Friday as Democrats publicly rallied against him hours after Donald Trump delivered a 92-minute speech accepting the Republican nomination.
There are calls within the White House to “give him grace” to make a decision, said former Obama official Johanna Maska
In a blistering assessment, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said Biden did not appear to acknowledge him when they gathered for the D-Day commemoration in Normandy in June.
“For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me,” Moulton wrote in an op-ed. “Of course, that can happen with age, but when I watched the disastrous debate a few weeks ago, I have to admit that what I saw in Normandy was part of a deeper problem,” he continued. “It was a crushing realization — and not because someone I care about had a bad night, but because everything hinges on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.”
“I know she wants to defeat Donald Trump, the problem is all the data points in the other direction,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a Nancy Pelosi loyalist and member of the House January 6 Committee, told MSNBC.
Before the day was out, another incumbent at risk, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, added his name to the list of elected officials calling for Biden to resign, after avoiding taking sides publicly. “I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me. At this critical moment, our full attention must return to these important issues. I believe the president should end his campaign.”
The Biden campaign acknowledged the difference of opinion in a statement.
“While the majority of the caucus and the party’s diverse base remain supportive of the President and his historic record of delivering for their communities, we are clear that the urgency and risks of defeating Donald Trump mean others feel differently,” said campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrengerg.
“We all share the same goal: an America where everyone has equal opportunity and where freedom and democracy are protected. Unlike Republicans, we are a party that accepts – and even celebrates – different opinions, but in the end, we will come together to defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said: “You’ve heard from the president directly over and over again: He’s in this race to win, he’s our nominee, and he will be our president for a second term.”
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