Democrats are slowly coming to grips with their fears about Biden

When I’m From North Carolina: The Campaign for President Biden at the 2020 Democratic Convention. A Closed Door Party Meeting at the Capitol Hill in Los Alamos

southerners use the term “I’m from North Carolina” to describe Democrats who vote for any candidate with the party’s label. If we were yellow dog Democrats we would vote for a yellow dog in the election because we think Donald Trump is a yellow dog.

On Monday, Biden also sent a two-page letter to Democratic lawmakers saying he’s committed to remaining in the race and that speculation about whether he should drop out helps Trump.

He gave two interviews in the past week, one of which was an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in which he dismissed the idea that Congressional leaders would challenge him at the convention.

The president is reaching out to members. The Congressional Black Caucus called him last night. Black voters were critical in propelling Biden to the White House four years ago and remain a critical voting bloc for him this cycle.

Several Democrats who did speak to reporters stressed that Biden was the nominee and the party needs to return to campaigning and making the contrast between Biden’s record and Trump’s agenda.

One of the members who was elected to lead the Democrats on messaging, Massachusetts Rep. Trahan, released a statement after the meeting saying that she shared concerns about Biden that she is hearing from voters.

The members leaving the meeting were mostly silent, with a few of them saying that it was good to have a family conversation and rest assured that the discussion is exactly what we should be doing as a party.

Despite mounting pressure over the weekend from Democrats calling on Biden to step aside from the campaign, the proverbial dam did not break when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill.

No other House or Senate Democrats joined the push for the president to withdraw as the 2024 presidential nominee, but lawmakers leaving a pair of closed door party meetings on both sides of the Capitol did not emerge on the same page. The private concerns about what the top of the ticket will do to the prospects of flipping the House and keeping control of the Senate persist.

The internal party heads into its second week after Democratic lawmakers expressed deep concerns about President Biden’s ability to campaign aggressively enough to win the election after a poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump.

Biden continues to have the support of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. When asked three times about the viability of the president as a candidate, Schumer repeated the same curt answer: “I’m with Joe.”

Montana Senator Jon Tester, perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat running for reelection in a state Trump won handily in 2020, pointed to a written statement he issued a day earlier saying he had concerns and the president needed to demonstrate he could do the job. He called the closed door discussion Tuesday “constructive.”

The number two Senate Democratic leader, Dick Durbin of Illinois, when asked about Biden remaining on the ticket, said “it still remains to be seen” and said the president is putting together his campaign.

Multiple Senate Democrats say this week is really the unofficial deadline for the party to debate the best path forward, if in fact there is a move to get behind an alternative nominee.

House Democrats huddled in a private meeting Tuesday morning at the Democratic National Committee headquarters close to the Capitol for close to two hours. Lawmakers were not allowed to bring phones, and the recommendation to those leaving the session was not to discuss the conversation with the media, according to members leaving the meeting. Top leaders left through a back entrance, avoiding reporters.

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The congressman said that the vast majority of people who spoke in the private session supported Biden as the nominee.

“I was surprised how much support Biden had in that room, not that it matters, because the voters, they’ve already chosen their nominee,” he told reporters. He admitted there was “some concern, but I didn’t really see a lot of people saying he shouldn’t be the guy.”

Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson said he doesn’t think there was “disunity in the room,” adding: “There were differences of opinion expressed, but we’re all unified in the fact that we can’t allow Donald Trump to regain the White House.”

“He’s the only one that’s kicked Trump’s ass in the election,” Fetterman said. It is going to be close like it was always close. and I think he’s going to win on that.”

The public panic is frustrating Biden loyalists who say Democrats are undermining the president and their own chances in the election by publicly venting their concerns. Fetterman told reporters that Biden is a great president, and he doesn’t like the way he talks.

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She said it was up to the president to decide if he would run. “We’re all encouraging him to to make that decision. Because time is running short.”

Even some close allies like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have carefully avoided speaking directly to questions about whether Biden should drop out. Pelosi was asked if she thought Biden had a good president and she said she did not think so but she took a careful approach to the questions.

Fears about Biden have been reverberating among frontline Democrats who are running in highly competitive districts and states. On Wednesday, New York Rep. Pat Ryan joined Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey as the latest at-risk Democrats calling on Biden to step aside.

Democrats will hold a special meeting at their campaign headquarters near the capitol to hear from senior Biden advisors Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, and Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, according to the source.

A Senate leadership source who was granted anonymity told me that Biden campaign officials are going to meet with senators.

“Its true that I said that,” Bennet repeated in an interview on CNN. “Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House.”

Lawmakers have said both publicly and privately that the party is badly fractured on the issue, giving heightened power to drips of information from individual members who choose to voice their opinions. Public concern began to pickup after CNN reported Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., privately told fellow senators at a Tuesday closed door meeting that he worried that Trump would win in a landslide and take the House and Senate with him.