House Democrats huddled for a private meeting Tuesday to discuss
the situation concerning President Biden amid a national firestorm over
his mental acuity in the week of last month's debates.
And they really emerged from that meeting still divided and
unclear over exactly how best to move forward.
This meeting took place one day after President Biden wrote
a letter to congressional Democrats telling them that he will
not step aside and very much plans to serve as
a nominee for president for Democrats.
Now, during the meeting that took place Tuesday,
we're told that over two dozen members spoke and there
was a lot of general airing of frustrations and concerns
that Donald Trump could end up winning in the fall.
A lot of Democrats have said privately what they say
in public that they view Trump as an existential threat
to the country.
So there's a lot of those concerns expressed and a
bit of panic I'd say as well.
There were also different ideas that around,
like someone suggested Kamala Harris could maybe serve as nominee.
It seems like that's very much a minority opinion,
but different ideas were thrown around during this meeting.
And it really wasn't a consensus,
at least from what we're told,
on how to deal with Biden.
But there was a really strong conviction that Democrats need
to unite around the eventual nominee and defeat Donald Trump
in November.
Carson Lloyd Dogger, who is the 1st House Democrat to
go public against Biden,
telling him that he would like him to step aside.
He talked to us after the meeting and he said
that he will back Biden if Biden becomes the nominee
and that he remains unmoved on his opinion about wanting
Biden to step aside after this meeting.
He said he went public with these concerns because he
really wants Democrats to win in November.
Now, most of the Democrats that came out of the
meeting weren't saying a lot to reporters.
They were also generally there was a lot more of
them anyways that were backing Biden,
at least in public. We're of course told that behind
the scenes is a bit more concerns that are being
conveyed than what we're hearing
publicly. Some of the members that were defending Biden include
Squad members like Ayanna Presley and Corey Bush,
who really chalked up questions about Biden's age to right
wing attacks.
So there's a wide range of opinions coming from Democrats,
but there were a lot of concerns,
I'd say a real desire from Democrats,
even ones that are backing Biden,
to get him to step up his game and really
prove himself to have Biden hit these questions from voters
head on about his mental acuity right now.
Going into the meeting, there were only six House Democrats
that publicly called on Biden to step aside.
And after the meeting that went up to seven because
Congresswoman Mickey Cheryl said in a statement after the meeting
that she believes Biden should step aside,
that it would be in the best interest of the
party for him to do so and to pass the
torch.
A lot of the members we talked to that came
out also said that they anticipate there will be more
discussions like this in the future.
And I'd say right now there is a little bit
of a sense on the Hill that the Democratic consternation
about Biden has lost a little bit of steaming lease
from where it was a few days ago when the
debate was a little bit more raw.