By Dave Andrusko
Well, as the saying goes, when it rains it pours. Increasingly, pro-abortion President Joe Biden is being pressured from all sides not to run again. As of today, he gives no sign he will get out of the race.
But…
Rep. Adam Schiff is running for Senate to replace the retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein. He told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that he had serious concerns about whether President Biden could win.
Schiff’s statement brings to at least 20 the number of House Democrats who have called on President Biden to end his campaign. “Others have said privately that he [Schiff] believes he should step aside,” Maggie Astor reported for the New York Times.
According to Astor
Mr. Schiff had said over the weekend, in a private meeting with donors, that if Mr. Biden remained the party’s nominee, Democrats were likely to lose not only the White House but also down-ballot races. But his public statement on Wednesday was a significant escalation.
He emphasized that he would support the Democratic ticket, even if Mr. Biden stayed at the top, but said he believed it would be better for Mr. Biden to “pass the torch.”
In response, Mr. Biden’s campaign pointed to the letter he sent to congressional Democrats last week. That letter said he was “firmly committed to staying in this race.” As for electability, he added, “I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
“The campaign also noted that Mr. Biden has retained the support of many members of Congress, including leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and that some of them have been with him on the campaign trail,” Astor wrote.
Astor’s story is the latest attempt by Democrats, party officials, and a wide swathe of the media to force Biden to drop out.
Also in the Times today is a column by David Leonhardt. He wants Biden out in the worse way, and leads off with “What happens when a politician’s interest diverges from his party’s interests? That’s the question facing the Democratic Party.”
As evidence of Biden putting his own interests first,
Leonhardt cites the answer Biden gave last week near the end of a press conference “that highlighted the difference between his own interests and his party’s.”
It came after a reporter asked him about the possibility that Vice President Kamala Harris would replace him on the ticket. “If your team came back and showed you data that she would fare better against former President Donald Trump, would you reconsider your decision to stay in the race?” the reporter, Haley Bull of Scripps News, asked.
Biden replied: “No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’ Me. No one is saying that. No poll says that.”
Leonhardt tags on “It’s worth unpacking that response. Biden did not reply that he was the Democrat most likely to win. Indeed, he suggested he might remain in the race even if it helped Trump. He named an impossibly high bar — certainty of defeat — for quitting.”
The pressure will mount every day. There are only 111 days until the November 5 election and however a replacement (theoretically, at this point) is chosen, time is running out for Democrats.
Leonhardt concludes, “For now, Democrats find themselves with a nominee whom most of them don’t want, and they don’t know what to do about it.”