More Democratic lawmakers and donors call on Biden to exit the 2024 race

Geoff Bennett:

There is growing pressure today from congressional Democrats for President Biden to step aside as the party's nominee. That's despite his repeated pledges to stay in the race.

Amna Nawaz:

Earlier today, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime Biden ally, praised the president, but stopped short of endorsing his candidacy.

Question:

Does he have your support to be the head of the Democratic ticket?

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA):

As long as the president has — the president — it's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short.

Question:

He has said firmly this week he is going to run. Do you want him to run?

Rep. Nancy Pelosi:

I want him to do whatever he decides to do.

Geoff Bennett:

And George Clooney, the actor and major Democratic fund-raiser, wrote an opinion column in The New York Times calling for the president to end his reelection campaign.

Amna Nawaz:

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, and White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez are here to discuss more.

So, Lisa, walk us through here.

What exactly is Pelosi saying here and how much could it matter?

Lisa Desjardins:

This was a fireball that hit Capitol Hill this morning when this first came out.

I will tell you, first of all, from Pelosi world what they say she was trying to do. They say she wanted to send two messages, one to the president and his team to not dismiss concerns that are real among Democrats on Capitol Hill, two, a message for Democrats on Capitol Hill basically to hold their fire in that interview, she said, until after NATO is over, basically setting Friday as potentially a key date.

Now, the interpretation is very different, because Pelosi is known as a master strategist. Her folks say this interview was planned way in advance because of the NATO summit, but others say she had to know, certainly knows, the pressures around the president right now. She clearly was going to choose her words carefully. And this is being interpreted as a kind of deadline-setting by Pelosi and indication that maybe she could some time call for the president to step aside.

So, all of that comes amid new calls from other Democrats for the president to step aside, just a handful still. But let's look at the folks on Capitol Hill who have said that either Biden cannot win, as Senator Michael Bennet did,or that he should step aside.

And now we have Pat Ryan, a congressman from New York in a very tough election battle, who has also joined that. Now, at the same time, the Biden administration says it will send three of the top campaign aides — I'm sorry — it's the campaign — to talk to senators tomorrow in a private meeting.

Campaign manager for the Biden campaign will meet, as long — as two senior advisers who are well-known on the Hill. But, Amna, I have to tell you, one of the senators who wants Biden to step aside told me they actually think that's dismissive, because it's not Biden himself.

Amna Nawaz:

Laura, I know you have been talking to Democratic donors. What are they saying about this George Clooney op-ed calling for Biden to step down?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Multiple donors and advisers to donors that I spoke to today said that they don't think that the president's position right now is sustainable.

And when they looked at George Clooney's op-ed, they said that one line in particular stuck out to them and captured kind of their unease. And that's that George Clooney wrote: "It's devastating to say it,but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at a fund-raiser was not the Joe 'Big Effing Deal' Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."

And that was a recent fund-raiser in California that George Clooney co-hosted. And also Rob Reiner, actor-director, followed that up, saying that he agreed with George Clooney and that Joe Biden needed to step aside. Donors acknowledge this — the alternative is complicated, but they really do believe, most of the ones that I spoke to, that President Biden should step aside.

The campaign, of course, thinks that right now big donors aren't as important to them. They're trying to put a focus on small-dollar donations, saying that they have had some of the best fund-raising at the start of July that they have had so far.

Amna Nawaz:

Lisa, Clooney also said most Democrats he speaks to privately worry that Biden cannot actually beat Trump. If that's true, if most Democrats are unhappy with Biden as the nominee, why aren't more saying so publicly or forcefully?

Lisa Desjardins:

It's the eternal question.

Two reasons. One are concern that perhaps there's not a better option. Others want to give him the chance to get out gracefully. But I think, overall, there's really kind of a lack of certainty and also lack of political conviction by many of these members.

One thing I do know, on Capitol Hill, there is a — I have to tell you that if the — they do not move soon, folks in the Biden campaign say that every day is a win for him. It helps him secure the nomination.

Amna Nawaz:

Finally, what's the Biden team saying about this, both publicly we're seeing in messaging and also privately to Democrats?

Laura Barron-Lopez:

The Biden campaign aides that I talked to today said that they're not delusional, that they hear Democrats' concerns, that President Biden has been holding calls, even some that we haven't — don't know about, that haven't been read out yet, across lawmakers, donors, party officials across the board, trying to prove to them that his candidacy is still viable.

They say that the voters — that the voters that they're talking to, that their internal polling shows that things haven't changed since the debate. They pretty much say that the polls that we're seeing publicly, are all wrong when you try to press them on that.

This is going to be a big week for President Biden, the next two days. He's going to have a solo press conference on Thursday. And that — all Democrats I have talked to say they are going to be watching that solo press conference at the end of NATO tomorrow very closely, could set up a big moment for the president on Friday, where we could very well see, if he performs poorly at that press conference, we could see more come out on Friday, Amna, saying that he should step aside.

Amna Nawaz:

Laura Barron-Lopez, Lisa Desjardins, thank you to you both.

Laura Barron-Lopez:

Thank you.