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WASHINGTON (AP) — Nancy Pelosi’s phone lit up the night of President Joe Biden’s debate performance with a question that has yet to be fully resolved: Now what?
Two weeks on, the situation shows no signs of letting up.
The uproar that has shaken the 2024 election, and siphoned attention away from Trump and his MAGA agenda, leaves Democrats at a painful standstill, at odds over whether to stick with Biden as their presumptive nominee or press on with the once-unthinkable option of trying to persuade the president to end his reelection campaign.
Pelosi as the former House speaker, along with Rep. Jim Clyburn, a veteran leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, are playing oversized roles as generational allies of the 81-year-old president but also trusted voices from Capitol Hill who can bring frank concerns to Biden. Their work, in public and private, is giving space to the current congressional leadership headed by House Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to navigate the Biden question and the party's political future.
Watching in disbelief at what the past weeks have brought, Democrats fear not only the White House, but control of the House and Senate in Congress, could be wiped out this November, leaving them essentially powerless to confront Trump and the far-right Project 2025 agenda, which they warn is a dire threat to American democracy.
Democrats believe they have a solid message to bring to voters, but worry that Biden, despite all he has done to bring their policy victories, may not be the best messenger to deliver it.
Biden insists he's staying in the race to “finish this job” because so much is at stake, and his team is working steadily to move on from the debilitating debate and return the political gaze back to Trump, as Republicans prepare for their nominating convention next week in Milwaukee.
After a more satisfactory performance by Biden in a much-anticipated press conference Thursday evening, the president hit the campaign trail to battleground Michigan and engaged Friday in private talks with lawmakers, including members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Biden's advisers understand there is more to be done to shore up support, and additional public events and private outreach are scheduled.
But the mood on Capitol Hill is not at all settled. Several more Democrats spoke out publicly Friday that Biden should step aside from the race — including Rep. Mike Levin of California who in a remarkable moment told Biden directly that he should bow out during the call with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to people familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it
Levin said in a statement later, “The time has come for President Biden to pass the torch.”
The congressman warned that Democrats “must prevail against the incalculable threat Donald Trump poses to the American institutions of freedom and democracy.” He said Trump “actively seeks a bleak authoritarianism and the overthrow of the values which have guided” the country for nearly 250 years.
While the floodgate of dissent that was expected from House Democrats did not open after Biden delivered what for many was a more than competent performance in his Thursday evening news conference, it also did not slam shut.
All told, almost 20 House Democrats are calling on Biden to bow out, a mix of younger and older lawmakers, those in some of the most competitive districts for reelection but also senior lawmakers who worry about the party's ability to win in fall. One Democratic senator has joined the chorus, so far.
The Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are confronting a situation like no other, testing a new era of leadership, helmed by Schumer and Jeffries, both New Yorkers, who are saying little publicly other than that they stand with Biden as they balance the competing views of their caucuses.
Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if Democrats win the majority in November, met privately with Biden Thursday night at the White House, and “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the caucus has shared in our recent time together.”
In a letter to colleagues, he said House Democrats have had an “extensive discussion” about the country’s future. And the conversation has been, as he said earlier in the week, “candid, clear-eyed and comprehensive.”
Schumer, with a slim Senate majority at stake this election, is also encouraging senators to personally dial up the president and his team to share their views, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
In his own conversations, including with senators and donors, Schumer has not foreclosed on any options.
The Senate leader invited Biden’s team to meet privately with Senate Democrats this week in a session that was heated at times with strong questions and opinions, but little assurances for senators from the president’s staff about the path forward.
What is most telling from the Democratic leaders is that they are having these conversations at all: It lays bare the reality that Democrats have not closed the door on an alternative to Biden.
The leaders are all being bombarded with advocates from all sides, on and off the Hill, pressing them to take action.
Pelosi, because of her stature as the party's formidable former speaker, and Clyburn as the leader who helped deliver the presidency for Biden in 2020, have particular clout, among those who could bring their influence to bear on the president.
Having twice led Democrats to taking back control of the House majority, Pelosi is trusted by lawmakers for her political insight, strategy and timing — as happened this week when she appeared on Biden's preferred news show, MSNBC's Morning Joe, and said “it's up to the president” to decide what to do, when Biden had already emphatically declared he's staying in the race.
Pelosi is also known for doling out advice often in public catch phrases — Don't agonize, organize. Start with a feather, end with a sledgehammer — all of which could be applicable at this moment.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Farnoush Amiri and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.