Dems Give Biden Hours to Save His Second Term Run

CLOCK'S TICKING

Nancy Pelosi lifted the veil on the next move on Biden’s candidacy: waiting to see if he makes it through a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Mary A

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While foreign leaders are in Washington this week and Biden is on the world stage hosting the event at a critical time in foreign affairs, Pelosi encouraged Democrats “let’s just hold off” with any announcements about his campaign.

“Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see,” she said, how it goes “this week.”

Biden’s candidacy faces new peril as Pelosi, Clooney and more Democrats weigh in

BY LISA MASCARO

Updated 1:04 PM PDT, July 10, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s imperiled re-election campaign hit new trouble Wednesday as

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said merely “it’s up to the president to decide” if he should stay in the race,
celebrity donor George Clooney said he should not run and
Democratic senators and lawmakers expressed fresh fear about his ability to beat Republican Donald Trump.

The sudden flurry of grave pronouncements despite Biden’s determined insistence he is not leaving the 2024 race put on public display just how unsettled the question remains among prominent Democrats. On Capitol Hill, an eighth House Democrat, Rep. Pat Ryan of New York, publicly asked Biden to step aside.

“I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” Pelosi said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” rather than declaring Biden should stay in.
While Biden has said repeatedly that he’s made his decision, she said, “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short.”

It’s a crucial moment for the president and his party, as Democrats consider what was once unthinkable — having the incumbent Biden step aside, just weeks before the Democratic National Convention that is on track to nominate him as their candidate for reelection. . .

To be sure, Biden maintains strong support from key corners of his coalition, particularly the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill, whose leadership was instrumental in ushering the president to victory in 2020 and is standing by him as the country’s best choice to defeat Trump again in 2024.

“At this moment, the stakes are too high and we have to focus,” Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota told The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying Democrats are “losing ground” the longer they fight over Biden’s candidacy. “Democracy is on the line. Everything we value as Democrats, as a country, is on the line, and we have to stop being distracted.”

Pelosi has been widely watched for signals of how top Democrats are thinking about Biden’s wounded candidacy, her comments viewed as important for the party’s direction as members weigh possible alternatives in the campaign against Trump.
Because of her powerful position as the former House speaker and proximity to Biden as a trusted longtime ally of his generation, Pelosi is seen as one of the few Democratic leaders who could have influence on the president’s thinking.

Fox News

3 hours ago

$Pelosi ignores Biden's decision to stay in the race in latest sign of Democrat fracture | Fox News$ $Pelosi ignores Biden's decision to stay in the race in latest sign of Democrat fracture | Fox News$

Pelosi ignores Biden's decision to stay in the race in latest sign of Democrat fracture | Fox News

The lack of a full statement from Pelosi backing Biden’s continued campaign is what lawmakers are likely to hear most clearly, even as she told ABC later she believes he can win.

Her remarks came as actor Clooney, who had just hosted a glitzy Hollywood fundraiser for the president last month, said in a New York Times op-ed that the Biden he saw three weeks ago wasn’t the Joe Biden of 2020. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”