In a separate one-on-one conversation, a person close to Biden told the president directly that he should end his candidacy, saying that was the only way to preserve his legacy and save the country from another Trump term, the person said. Biden responded that he strongly disagreed with that view and that he was the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.
Democratic leaders released brief statements after the meetings, acknowledging only that they occurred but saying little or nothing about the substance. The Biden campaign and the White House also did not provide public summaries of the meetings.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden told Schumer and Jeffries in their private meetings that he would remain at the top of the ticket. “The president told both leaders that he is the party’s nominee, that he plans to win, and he looks forward to working with both of them to enact his 100-day agenda to help working families,” Bates said in a statement.
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in California and a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), on Wednesday became the latest prominent House member to call for Biden to drop out of the race. Adding to the president’s challenges, he tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, forcing him to scale back his campaign schedule.
Even before last month’s presidential debate, in which Biden stumbled repeatedly, internal Democratic polling showed his support lagging behind his 2020 levels by significant margins in key districts, according to people familiar with the data. Biden’s team had long hoped the debate would boost those numbers, but it didn’t work out that way.
“House Democratic polls have shown no change in the standings of congressional candidates since the debate,” said a person familiar with the data, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
In the Senate, Democrats hold a 51-49 majority, but Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), a longtime Democrat who recently switched to independent, is not seeking reelection, meaning the GOP will almost certainly win back his seat. Even if Democrats win every other contested seat, the result would be a 50-50 split — meaning the Senate would be controlled by whichever party wins the White House, because the vice president casts the tie-breaking vote in the chamber.
That has deeply worried many Senate Democrats, given that Biden trails Trump in numerous polls in key states where Democratic Senate candidates continue to lead. — a sentiment Schumer expressed to Biden in their meeting. “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus,” said Alex Nguyen, a spokesman for the senator.
In private meetings with larger groups of lawmakers, Biden has disputed the notion that he is losing to Trump or that he would hurt other Democrats and has cited polls as a defense, though he has not specified which ones support his point, according to two of the people briefed on the matter.
The private warnings from Jeffries and Schumer are a striking message from party leaders and reflect the dire outlook among many Democrats after Biden’s debate performance. Nearly two dozen members of Congress have publicly called for Biden to drop out of the race, and many other elected officials privately share that sentiment.
Pelosi and former President Barack Obama, who have have spoken about the state of the race in recent days, privately expressing concern about the president’s path forward, according to people familiar with their conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the conversations were private. Obama spoke to Biden after the debate, offering his support as a sounding board and private adviser to the man who was his vice president.
Mr. Biden has in recent days launched an energetic, sometimes combative effort to hear the concerns of fellow Democrats, meeting virtually with five groups of House lawmakers. He has also spoken privately with party leaders, including Ms. Pelosi and Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.).
Biden had a phone conversation Friday with Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which oversees the party’s House races, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversation was private. A DCCC spokesperson declined to comment.
While their path to retaining the Senate majority has seemed shaky for some time, Democrats see a clear path to retaking the House, which Republicans now control 220-213. With Trump leading Biden in the polls, Democrats fear that failure to retake the House would give Trump and the far-right faction of the Republican Party a free hand to remake Washington.
The day after meeting with Biden, Jeffries sent a letter to his fellow House Democrats to inform them of the conversation, noting that he had requested the meeting.
“In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insights, candid perspectives, and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together,” Jeffries wrote, referring to the full caucus of House Democrats.
After their meeting on Saturday, Schumer said in a statement: “I sat down with President Biden this afternoon in Delaware; we had a good meeting.”
In recent days, Democratic lawmakers and even top strategists working on Biden’s reelection effort have grown increasingly concerned that the president is not getting a full picture of the state of the race. In particular, they worry that he has not met with his campaign’s pollsters and has instead relied largely on advice from a shrinking circle of longtime aides.
The back-and-forth is happening alongside a related dispute over whether to proceed with a virtual roll call that would formally nominate Biden several weeks before the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention. Some Democrats say it is a necessary move to ensure that Republicans cannot challenge Biden’s nomination as too late; others complain it is a ploy to cement his nomination before delegates convene.
On Wednesday, the co-chairs of the convention’s rules committee issued a letter saying the virtual roll call would happen, but promised it would not be rushed and would not occur before Aug. 1. The announcement came after some Democratic lawmakers began protesting the process and calling for the party to scrap it.
Paul Kane, Marianna Sotomayor and Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed to this report.
