Democrats in Disarray: No Consensus on Joe Biden After ‘Funeral’ Meeting on Capitol Hill

President Biden Participates In Medal Of Honor Ceremony
Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

Democrats remain in disarray after party lawmakers met Tuesday morning about who they should support for president after President Joe Biden’s terrible debate performance.

Biden, 81, who still appears the de facto nominee, stabilized his candidacy on Monday after he aggressively invited primary challengers to the upcoming convention and simultaneously won the support of the “Squad” members.

Not all Democrat lawmakers agree or are happy with Biden remaining atop the ticket. Biden is losing in key swing state surveys, post-debate polling shows. Forty-one percent of Democrat voters want Biden to drop out of the race, while only 51 percent want him to remain on the ticket, a Suffolk University poll found.

Democrats met Tuesday to weigh their options at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) headquarters. The meeting was moved from the Capitol Building to the DNC’s headquarters to reduce leaks during the potentially heated discussion, Axios reported. Despite the precaution, Democrats leaked to the establishment media and characterized the huddle as a “funeral” with a “significant amount of frustration” and “sadness.”
Lisa Desjardins from PBS News reported that multiple members raised Vice President Kamala Harris’s name many times. A “significant” amount of the lawmakers preferred Harris as the nominee to Biden, she said. The meeting had a sense of “sadness” about Biden and his candidacy, CNN’s Lauren Fox reported.

“I haven’t talked to one who privately says they think Biden is capable of running and beating Trump at this point,” Punchbowl News’s Heather Scope posted on X:

The debate was just a public airing of the concerns many of them have experienced/expressed privately. And that was from those who felt they actually got time with the president over the last year. Others have complained about very limited/controlled interactions. BUT they also don’t want to be ostracized publicly and/or feel it’s already determined that Biden will be the nominee.

Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reported that the meeting room “felt like a funeral,” and lawmakers found “no consensus on Biden”: 

Lots of talk about how difficult the situation is for Dems. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) said that putting Harris atop the ticket would be setting her up for failure. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said he saw a poll recently that had Biden losing in his district. Biden won his district with 62% of the vote last time.

The room exposed a “significant amount of frustration” about leaks to the press, but “no consensus on Biden” was found, Punchbowl News’s Mica Soellner posted. 

“One Democratic insider tells me that members have been briefed on polling that shows House Democrats could lose as many as 20 seats, the Bulwark’s Marc Caputo reported. “‘We were supposed to win the House,’ the source said.”

Leaders of the Democrat Party do not support the opposition to Biden. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) still appear to support him.

Political experts suggest that Democrats might be stuck with Biden for three reasons: the challenge of replacing him on 50 state ballots, the challenge of moving money behind a new candidate, and the challenge of finding a candidate who would likely be a sacrificial lamb to run in his place.

Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.

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