President Joe Biden Photographer: Cornell Watson/Bloomberg The first immediate test for the president will be a hastily arranged meeting Wednesday evening with Democratic governors, many of whom are at the center of speculation about possibly replacing Biden on the ticket were he to step aside.
Some nationally prominent governors with extensive fundraising networks like California’s Gavin Newsom and Illinois’s JB Pritzker will head to the White House for the crisis meeting in person, while others will join virtually.
Separately, Biden has been calling senior Democratic lawmakers – including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries – in a bid to shore up support on Capitol Hill, even as members of his party are publicly expressing dismay about his campaign.
That anxiety has only been fueled by a flood of recent reporting suggesting other Democrats are eyeing possible replacement candidates — and the Times reporting that Biden had recognized he could not afford another misstep that would reinforce perceptions about his age and acuity fanned by the debate.
Biden told his ally the race would be in a “different place” if upcoming events went poorly, the Times reported. Biden plans to sit for an interview with ABC News on Friday, and hold a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. On Sunday, he’ll travel to Philadelphia for another campaign event.
Other recent reports have also spurred speculation among Democratic allies. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that former President Barack Obama had privately conveyed to allies that Biden’s path to reelection was more challenging following his debate performance.
Reuters published a new poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris – the most likely successor if Biden were to step aside – trailing Trump, the Republican candidate, by a single point. Momentum behind the vice president, who could take over the campaign’s sizable war chest, has gathered in recent days.
The Leadership Now Project, a group of business leaders who had organized to counter what they saw as threats to democracy during the last Trump administration, called for Biden to cede his place as the Democratic nominee.
”This process will undoubtedly be messy and is not without risk,” the group said in a statement. “However, the stakes are too high not to act.”
In Wilmington, Delaware, staffers at Biden’s campaign headquarters received an email from campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and chair Jen O’Malley Dillon saying the campaign would increase its cadence of all-staff calls and emails to better coordinate, including a meeting set for Wednesday afternoon. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients is also planning an all-hands meeting for early Wednesday afternoon to shore up staff.
The campaign’s memo asked staffers to emphasize the “full picture” of Biden’s support, downplaying recent polls that have shown a noticeable tilt toward Trump.
“Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate — it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race,” the pair wrote.
A CBS News survey released Wednesday showed the Republican candidate holding a three-point edge over Biden in battleground states, and two-point lead nationally. Nearly seven in 10 voters said Biden’s age was a factor in their vote.
South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn, a leading Biden supporter, told CNN on Wednesday he wants to see the president in “town-hall type” events now and performing there would calm some fears.