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Democrats in the US Congress were torn over the fate of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign as they held a tense and gloomy day of talks on whether to rally around the president or push him to drop his bid.
After vowing to stay in the race and calling for unity within the party on Monday, Biden received the backing of some important Democrats, including members of the congressional black caucus, the congressional Hispanic caucus and other progressive lawmakers.
Several Democratic lawmakers said the continuing battle to replace him at the top of the ticket would damage their chances of beating Donald Trump in November.
“I think that once [Biden’s] decision has been fully made, it does start to do more damage than good [to question his candidacy],” said Maxwell Frost, a 27-year-old Florida Democrat, after leaving a meeting of party members in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. “And I do believe his decision has been made.”
Jerry Nadler, the New York Democrat and the party’s top lawmaker on the House judiciary committee, who had privately said over the weekend that he would like Biden to quit the race, said he was now backing the president.
“The president made very clear yesterday that he’s running. For me that’s dispositive; we have to support him,” he said.
But other Democrats were worried that Biden’s determination to plough ahead was dooming the party to defeat against Trump in November, with polling already showing Biden trailing nationally and losing in most battleground states.
Some Democrats also fear Biden’s insistence on running could lead to widespread losses for Democrats in congressional races as well.
“He just has to step down, because he can’t win, and my colleagues need to recognise that,” said Mike Quigley, a Democratic lawmaker from Illinois.
On Tuesday, Democratic senators were set to meet for a regular lunch meeting, with Biden’s fate at the top of the agenda, making it a critical moment for the president’s political future.
Several senior lawmakers have stopped short of calling on the president to quit his re-election campaign, but have been harshly critical of his performance in last month’s debate against Trump, and suggested he needs to consider whether he is still serving the country’s best interests.
“More than a week since the debate, and after talking with my constituents, I believe President Biden must do more to demonstrate he can campaign strong enough to beat Donald Trump,” Patty Murray, the senior senator from Washington state, said in a statement on Monday.
Biden is expected to speak at the Nato summit in Washington later on Tuesday, but his most important public remarks this week could well be when he holds a press conference on Thursday evening. He is then due to travel to Michigan, a pivotal battleground state, for a campaign rally.
The drama surrounding Biden’s future could eclipse the Republican convention to nominate Trump in Milwaukee next week. Speaking on Fox News on Monday night, Trump said he expected Biden to stay in the race.
“It looks to me like he may very well stay in. He’s got an ego, and he doesn’t want to quit. He doesn’t want to do that,” Trump said.
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