Biden advocates party unity, says he will campaign next week, resists calls to step down

As more Democratic members of Congress urged him to drop out — bringing the total since his disastrous debate against Trump to nearly three dozen — Biden remained isolated at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19. The president, who has insisted he can beat Trump, was gathering with his family and relying on a few longtime aides as he resisted attempts to sideline him.

On Friday night, Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is facing a tough re-election race, called on Biden to step down.

Brown said in a statement that he agreed with “the many Ohioans” who have contacted him. “I believe the president should end his campaign,” he said.

In a statement released later Friday, Kentucky Democratic Rep. Morgan McGarvey also called on Biden to step down, saying, “There is no joy in acknowledging that he should not be our nominee in November. But the stakes in this election are too high.”

Biden said Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention presented a “bleak vision of the future.” The president, seeking to shift the political conversation away from his fate and onto his rival’s agenda, said Friday he plans to return to the campaign trail next week and insisted he has a path to victory over Trump, despite concerns from some of his party’s most prominent members.

“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said. “The stakes are high and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”

Earlier in the day, his campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillion, acknowledged a “dwindling” of support for the president but insisted he “absolutely” remains in the race and that the campaign sees “multiple paths” to defeating Trump.

“We have a lot of work to do to reassure the American people that, yes, he’s old, but he can win,” she told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” She added that voters concerned about Biden’s ability to lead aren’t turning to Trump.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee’s decision-making body held a meeting Friday, advancing plans for a virtual roll call by Aug. 7 to determine the presidential pick, ahead of the party’s convention later this month in Chicago.

“President Biden deserves the respect for having important family conversations with members of the caucus and his colleagues in the House, Senate and Democratic leadership and not fighting over leaks and press statements,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Biden’s closest friend in Congress and his campaign co-chair, told The Associated Press.

The last few days are pivotal for the president and his party: Trump wrapped up a rousing Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday. And Democrats, pressed for time, are contemplating the extraordinary possibility that Biden will cede to a new presidential nominee before their own convention.

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich called on Biden to withdraw from the race, making him the third Democratic senator to do so.

“By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and preserve the future of our democracy,” said Heinrich, who is running for re-election.

Reps. Jared Huffman, Mark Veasey, Chuy Garcia and Mark Pocan, representing a large portion of the caucus, have together called on Biden to step down.

“We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy,” they wrote.

Separately, Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois wrote in an op-ed that with “a heavy heart and much personal reflection,” he too called on Biden to “pass the torch to a new generation.”

Campaign officials said Biden was even more determined to stay in the race. And West Wing advisers have had no internal discussions or conversations with the president about dropping out of the race.

On Friday, Biden received a key endorsement from the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The CHC BOLD PAC said the Biden administration has demonstrated an “unwavering commitment” to Latinos and that “the stakes could not be higher” in this election.

But it is also time to reconsider. Biden has been told that his campaign is struggling to raise money, and leading Democrats see his absence from the campaign as an opportunity to encourage him to leave the campaign. Some in his cabinet are resigned to the likelihood that he will lose in November.

The information in this article is based in part on information from a dozen people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive private deliberations. The Washington Post was first to report Obama’s involvement.

Biden, 81, tested positive for COVID-19 during a trip to Las Vegas earlier this week and experienced “mild symptoms,” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.

White House physician Kevin O’Connor said Friday that the president still has a dry cough and hoarseness, but his COVID symptoms have improved.

Biden addressed his illness by making a joke about Trump on social media Friday night, posting: “I’m stuck at home with COVID so I had the misfortune of watching Donald Trump’s speech at the RNC. What was he talking about?”

In Congress, elected Democrats have begun to discuss privately whether to line up behind Harris as an alternative. One said Biden’s advisers themselves couldn’t come to a unanimous recommendation on what he should do. Others in Congress are considering joining others who have called for Biden to step down. Some favor an open process for choosing a new presidential nominee.

“It’s clear that the problem is not going to go away,” said Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, the other Democratic senator to publicly say Biden should drop out of the race. Welch said the current state of angst in the party — with lawmakers panicking and donors in revolt — was “not sustainable.”

However, influential Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are sending signals of concern.

“There is certainly work to be done, and that is true because we are an evenly divided country,” Jeffries said in an interview with WNYC radio on Friday.

But he also said: “The ticket that’s out there right now is the ticket we can win on. … That’s his decision to make.”

To be sure, many want Biden to stay in the race. But among Democrats nationwide, nearly two-thirds say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate another candidate, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. That sharply contradicts Biden’s post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him.

Amid the turmoil, a majority of Democrats believe Vice President Kamala Harris would make a good president herself.

A poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats think Harris would do a good job leading the party. About 2 in 10 Democrats don’t think so, and another 2 in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan; Ellen Knickmeyer in Aspen, Colorado; Steve Peoples in Milwaukee; and Josh Boak, Will Weissert, Mary Clare Jalonick, Seung Min Kim and Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.