President Joe Biden announced he would end his re-election campaign a week after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Delaware.
But the New York Democrat won’t say whether he privately urged the president to step aside.
Reports emerged earlier this month that Schumer, 73, was joining the long list of Democrats pressuring Biden to step down, but he has not confirmed whether this is true and kept up the act during an interview on Sunday.
CBS’s Face the Nation host Robert Costa pressed the senator, saying it was important to know “for the sake of history” whether he had those conversations with the president.
“I’m not going to get into the details,” Schumer said when asked a second time whether he told Biden, 81, it was time to step aside.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is silent on whether he privately urged President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid
He added: “President Biden will leave office with his head held high for all the great things he has done and because he put America first. He always has.”
About 40 Democratic lawmakers publicly called on Biden to stop running for a second term before he decided to drop out last weekend. They joined strategists and other lawmakers who said it was time to step down after his debate against Donald Trump in June.
Among them was his top ally and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Schumer initially sidestepped a question about whether he was among those lobbying Biden, instead talking about the president’s three-and-a-half years in office.
“Senator, on July 13, you went to Delaware to meet with President Biden. It was a private conversation, and I know you like to keep your conversations with the president private,” Costa said Sunday morning. “But that, for history, was a very momentous meeting in the sense that you were the Democratic leader of the Senate, the majority leader, meeting with the president to talk about the presidential race.”
“For the record, did you in any way suggest to the president that he drop out of the presidential race on July 13?” Costa asked.
Schumer met with Biden just eight days before the president dropped out of the race.
Schumer responded by dodging the question, saying, “Well, first, let’s look at President Biden’s record. He’s had one of the most amazing presidencies we’ve had in decades, passing so many good things.”
“The infrastructure bill, the IRA bill, lowering the price of prescription drugs for the first time, successfully going after the NRA, helping our veterans with burn pits,” he listed. “So he’s had an amazing record of success and he’s always done what’s right for America and I respect that.”
“I respect his patriotism. I respect the wonderful things we worked on together, many of them,” Schumer concluded.