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As President Joe Bidens embattled reelection campaign tries to regain its footing after a disastrous first debate with presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, panic among Democrats in Congress is slowly spreadingmostly in private or off the record, but increasingly in front of a camera. On Monday night, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet told CNN that the White House has done nothing to really demonstrate that they have a plan to win this election and that Republicans could win the election in a landslide. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday that Biden should reexamine his decision to run. A group of center-left House Democrats met Wednesday with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to convey their fears about Bidens ability to campaign and win.

They arent just worried about Trump winning a second term. They fear that a sinking Biden candidacy might doom the party to minority status in both chambers of Congress, and in many cases, sink their individual campaigns. These are not idle fears. Current polling suggests that the Democrats position in the battle for Congress has deteriorated since Bidens debate fiasco, and recent history does not provide much comfort down-ballot. Anything can happen, but if Biden goes down, a lot of House and Senate Democrats are highly likely to go down with him.

That winning presidential candidates have a positive effect on other races is hardly controversial. It is known as the coattail effect, and while it isnt the most studied question in political science, the research thats out there is fairly clear: Congressional candidates tend to rise or fall in conjunction with the top of the ticket. Political scientist Robert Erikson found in 2016 that for every percentage point that a presidential candidate gains in the two-party vote, their partys down-ballot candidates gain almost half a point themselves. A 1990 study by James E. Campbell and Joe A. Sumners found that for every 10 points that a presidential candidate gains in a state, it boosts that partys Senate contender by 2 points, and its House hopefuls by 4. This basic logic is a large part of why the past five presidents brought congressional majorities into office with them when they were elected to their first term.

Democrats can also ill afford a visibly aging void at the top of the ticket because the partys quest for congressional majorities started off this cycle at a major disadvantage to begin with. Democrats are defending 23 Senate seats (counting independents who caucus with them) to the GOPs 10. Many of these endangered seats are in states Trump has won twice, including Montana and Ohio, or once, as in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona. Because Sen. Joe Manchins retirement means that West Virginia is all but lost, Democrats would either have to run the table in the races they are defending or offset losses with flips elsewhere on the map. The problem is that no one seriously believes that any Republican-held Senate seats are in play this cycle. The House also likely maintains a modest Republican biasespecially after North Carolina Republicans aggressively gerrymandered their states mapmeaning that Democrats would likely need to win 51 percent or more of the total House vote to emerge with a majority. At the moment, both the FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics polling averages show an extremely tight race in the generic ballot question: whether voters want Republicans or Democrats in Congress.

Heres another extremely uncomfortable historical fact for Bidens defenders: Since 1988, the only losing candidates for president whose party secured a branch of Congress were Mitt Romney with the House in 2012 and Bob Dole with both chambers in 1996. It is worth noting that in both cases Republicans lost seats while holding on to the House, and in 2012 they were able to keep their majority mostly because of post-2010 gerrymandering. This doesnt mean that Democrats cant and wont run ahead of Biden in many races, but rather that in the aggregate, it is highly unlikely to be enough. Neither party has kicked away a chamber of Congress that they already held when their nominee won the general election since 1832, when Andrew Jacksons Democrats lost the Senate. Democrats came close to flipping the Senate in both 2000 and 2016, when their nominees won the popular vote while losing the Electoral College, but close isnt going to cut it.

It gets worse. Lets say that Biden ultimately emerges with less than 40 percent of the vote on Election Day, as the RealClearPolitics average currently suggests. (FiveThirtyEight has him a hair over that number as of Thursday afternoon.) What happened to the political parties of the last major-party candidates to do that badly? No major-party nominee has dipped below that bleak threshold since George H.W. Bushs 1992 campaign, when he won 37.4 percent. Republicans that year won 176 seats in the House and 43 seats in the Senate. Yes, they gained a few seats in the House over their 1990 numbersbut they didnt get anywhere near a majority.

And while Democrats won the House every time they lost the presidency between 1956 and 1988, American politics were so different during this time period as to be unrecognizable. Beginning in 1992, ticket splittingvoting for one partys candidate for president and the other partys candidates for Congresswent into terminal decline, and the correlation between presidential and congressional outcomes went way up. In 1992, voters in 13 states split their tickets between presidential and Senate races. In 2020 that number was at onean uptick from 2016, when it had fallen to zero. My guess is that number will go up this year, but it would have to go up by a lot to preserve the Democrats Senate majority in any scenario that includes a Biden loss.

Would a new nominee at the top of the ticket change this grim reality? Those of us convinced that Biden needs to exit this race pronto have to acknowledge that there is not a ton of hard evidence that swapping out the nominee at this stage would help. A FiveThirtyEight analysis suggested that putting Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket would only improve the odds of winning the Electoral College by 3 percent. Polls testing lesser-known candidates like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer look even worse on the surface but are likely the result of many respondents not knowing who she is. A CNN poll that showed Harris doing marginally better than Biden also had so-called double hatersthose who dislike both Trump and Bidenbreaking heavily for any conceivable Democratic replacement for Biden. And on Thursday, an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll found Harris beating Trump 49 percent to 47 percenta net 3 points better than Bidens standing in the poll. For the first time, Harris now does better in the RealClearPolitics head-to-head average against Trump than the president does.

It is also possible that Democrats struggles in congressional races are simply baked in at this point, because a new presidential nominee might also be blamed for inflation and housing woes, bear the brunt of the publics dissatisfaction with immigration policy, inherit outrage over the Gaza war, and become a vessel for the publics generally dyspeptic disposition. But there are two pieces of evidence suggesting that Biden is a unique drag on the partys fortunes: A number of battleground state Democratic Senate candidates are running way ahead of Biden, including Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey. And thats not just the value of strong incumbents. Democratic candidates Ruben Gallego in Arizona and Elissa Slotkin in Michigan are also polling well in front of the president. And a November New York Times/Siena College swing-state poll also found Biden losing to Trump by 4 but a generic Democrat beating him by 8. That all suggests someone else would likely do better. At the least, having a national nominee capable of making a forceful case for the Democratic vision would be an improvement over what the party has now.

There is no public polling testing congressional races with different presidential nominees atop the ticket. So exactly what a new nominee would accomplish down-ballot is, ultimately, anyones guess. But the fact that many Democrats are hoping that Biden steps asideespecially the most vulnerable candidates like Montana Sen. Jon Testerindicates that they feel like theyd have a better shot with someone else up there. They believe, with reason, that they are almost certainly holding a losing hand. Why wouldnt they want to trade in some cards for new ones even if it carries some risk of making their hand worse?

None of this is fun to read or think about for Democrats; it would be preferable to keep the focus on Trumps increasingly authoritarian bent and designs. The far rights reactionary Project 2025 policy blueprintwhich includes plans to gut the civil service and use the executive branch to drastically cut down on abortion access even in states where it remains legalhas become so toxic that even Trump has tried unsuccessfully to distance himself from it. But make no mistake: Donald Trump is the most dangerous person ever to serve as president, and his menace to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law has only grown over time as his handpicked Supreme Court has closed off all avenues of possible accountability. But drawing attention to Trumps dystopian project will be all but impossible with Joe Biden at the helm. Every day between now and Election Day, there will be questions about his age, his latest flub, his faltering poll numbers, his frail gait, and more. His decision to stay in the race will inevitably be the story between now and November, as Democrats brace for defeat and sharpen knives for the party elites who put them in this position.

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If Biden Loses the Election, a Lot of Democrats Will Go Down With Him - Slate

A wave of congressional Democrats this week called on President Biden to drop his 2024 campaign. Eleven House lawmakers and one senator issued statements Wednesday and Thursday alone, including three after Biden's high-stakes NATO press conference, adding to the pressure he faces as he seeks to reassure his party that he is ready to take on Republican Donald Trump in November.

In total, 19 congressional Democrats have now called for Biden to step aside in what would be an unprecedented decision, while a number of other party leaders have voiced various concerns about his candidacy.

Biden, meanwhile, has shown no signs of backing down after a highly criticized debate performance last month reinforced questions about his age and fitness for office. The president said he simply had a "bad night," and he has since held rallies and a series of media interviews in an attempt to showcase his viability on the campaign trail.

Here are the Democrats who have spoken out. Check back here as this article will be continually updated.

The Colorado congresswoman shared that she is "joining the growing number of people" to ask Biden to "pass the torch to one of our many capable Democratic leaders."

Sorensen, an Illinois congressman, was the third House Democrat to speak out shortly after the president's NATO news conference.

The California lawmaker also issued his statement after Biden's press conference.

Today I ask President Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign. The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course. My conscience requires me to speak up and put loyalty to the country and to democracy ahead of my great affection for, and loyalty to, the President and those around him, Peters said in a statement. We must find a candidate from our deep bench of talent who can defeat Donald Trump.

Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, called on Biden to exit the race as the president was wrapping up his highly anticipated NATO news conference Thursday.

In an email to a local Oregon outlet, Gluesenkamp Perez, a Washington state representative, wrote, "Like most people I represent in Southwest Washington, I doubt the President's judgement about his health, his fitness to do the job, and whether he is the one making important decisions about our country, rather than unelected advisors.

"The crisis of confidence in the Presidents leadership needs to come to an end," she added. "The President should do what he knows is right for the country and put the national interest first."

The Arizona congressman reiterated themes from other representatives asking Biden to step down some extremely similar to what Rep. Brad Schneider said earlier in the day including that "the stakes in this election could not be higher" and "it is time for the President to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders."

"The Democratic Party must have a nominee who can effectively make the case against Trump," Stanton wrote. "For the sake of American democracy, ... I believe it is time for the President to step aside as our nominee."

"My guidepost is what is the best way forward for our country," the Hawaii congressman said in a statement. "I do not believe President Biden should continue his candidacy for re-election as President."

Schneider's statement described how Biden "has the opportunity to secure his legacy" by leaving the race.

"The stakes in this election could not be higher," the Illinois Democrat wrote. "I love President Biden. I am forever grateful for his leadership and service to our nation. The time has come, however, for President Biden to heroically pass the torch to a new generation of leadership."

Scholten, who flipped her district in Michigan in 2022, issued a statement on X that Biden should step aside from the presidential race and allow a new leader to step up.

However, she added that should Biden stay in the race, she would "respect" the decision and will still vote for him, as a clear and necessary alternative to Donald Trump."

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Welch, of Vermont, became the first U.S. senator to call for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race.

I understand why President Biden wants to run. He saved us from Donald Trump once and wants to do it again. But he needs to reassess whether he is the best candidate to do so. In my view, he is not," Welch wrote.

Blumenauer, of Oregon, became the ninth House Democrat to call for Biden to exit the presidential race.

"It is a painful and difficult conclusion but there is no question in my mind that we will all be better served if the president steps aside as the Democratic nominee and manages a transition under his terms," Blumenauer said in a statement, according to Politico. "He has earned that right."

Ryan told the New York Times that he felt Biden should step aside "for the good of the country."

"I'd be doing a grave disservice if I said he was the best candidate to serve this fall," the New York Democrat said. "For the good of our country, for my two young kids, I'm asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders."

In a statement posted on X, Sherrill shared that because she knows "Biden cares deeply about the future of our country," he should "declare he won't run for reelection" and "help us through a process toward a new nominee."

Sherrill added that her concerns lie with the "threat" of Trump returning to the White House.

"The stakes are too high," the New Jersey Democrat wrote. "I realize this is hard, but we have done hard things in pursuit of democracy since the founding of this nation. It is time to do so again."

Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told CNN on July 8 that he agreed Biden should end his candidacy and that Vice President Kamala Harris "would be a much better, stronger candidate." He also issued a similar statement on his official site.

"The president's performance in the debate was alarming to watch and the American people have made it clear they no longer see him as a credible candidate to serve four more years as president," Smith said. "Since the debate, the president has not seriously addressed these concerns.

"This is unacceptable. The stakes are simply too high. Donald Trump and MAGA extremism pose an existential threat to our nation, and we need to be in the strongest possible position to win in this election."

Smith did add that if Biden stays in the race, he will support him.

"If he gets the nomination, I'm all in," Smith said.

Craig, a Democrat who represents Minnesota's second congressional district, issued a statement hours after the ABC interview, for Biden to step aside in the 2024 race.

While noting her respect for Biden's "decades of service," Craig said "given what I saw and heard from the President during last week's debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.

"This is not a decision I've come to lightly, but there is simply too much at stake to risk a second Donald Trump presidency," she added, before calling on Biden to drop out of the race and "allow for a new generation of leaders to step forward."

"There is only a small window left to make sure we have a candidate best equipped to make the case and win," Craig said.

Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, became the fourth House Democrat to call on Biden to exit the presidential race.

"Mr. President, your legacy is set," he said on MSNBC. "We owe you the greatest debt of gratitude. The only thing that you can do now to cement that for all time and prevent utter catastrophe is to step down and let someone else do this."

Quigley affirmed his decision in comments following Biden's ABC News interview Friday.

The Illinois representative had previously publicly expressed reservations about Biden continuing his campaign, urging the president to "appreciate at this time just how much it impacts not just his race, but all the other races that are coming in November."

Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and Iraq war vet, became the third House Democrat to call on Biden to step aside. He did so in an interview with Boston radio station WBUR.

"President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding fathers, George Washington's footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump," Moulton told WBUR.

Moulton said the mechanism for choosing a new candidate was "yet to be determined" and could include "some sort of primary process" or that Vice President Kamala Harris could emerge as the presidential nominee.

On Wednesday, Moulton had released a statement that had stopped short of calling for Biden to exit, but had recommended "all viable options" be on the table.

Grijalva became the second House Democrat to call on Biden to drop out. In an interview, he said, "If hes the candidate, Im going to support him, but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere."

"What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat," the Arizona Democrat continued, "and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.

Doggett was the first Democrat in office to directly call for Biden to drop out. In a statement, which circulated on X, Doggett, of Texas, said Bidens debate performance did not reassure voters and Biden failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trumps lies.

Following Biden's ABC News interview Friday, Doggett said the "need" for Biden to step aside was growing more urgent every day.

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At least 19 congressional Democrats have now called on Biden to end his reelection bid - Yahoo! Voices

We were really hoping to make todays newsletter squarely about the implications of the Law of the Sea Treaty but, you know, this Biden storyline! And so, weve decided to dutifully keep covering it, with a mix of some fresh reporting, exclusive focus group data, and a poignant plea by Bill to the Democratic Party establishment.

Happy Thursday! [Its not Friday, right?]

Bidens campaign team, the influencers on his payroll, and a small cadre of loud political obsessives have argued this past week that there is a cabal of hand-wringing elites engaged in a palace coup against the will of Democratic base voters.

Im getting so frustrated by the elites now Im not talking about you guys the elites in the party, Oh, they know so much more. Any of these guys that dont think I should run, run against me,Biden said in an appearance on Morning Joe, the breakfast show of choice for coastal elites.

Nancy Lee Grahn, a white actress on daytime soap operas, offered a representative sample of how that argument was playing out on social media.

This framethat there is a cloistered, privileged media class playing games with democracy for shits and giggles while the average Democrat pines for Dark Brandonis a compelling one. Thats because it presents clear, digestible heroes (marginalized Americans worried about how Trump 2.0 could hurt them) and villains (know-it-all limousine liberal environmentalists who are personally protected from the Trumpian threat).

But heres the main problem with that story. Its just not true. In fact, as Ezra Klein shared with me on yesterdays podcast, the opposite is whats taking place.

The real conspiracy is that the Democratic elites are the ones protecting Biden. They dont believe he can win and they are sanguine about what a second Trump term would look like. And their stay the course talking points are merely an attempt to manipulate the desperate and worried Democratic base voters who are willing to do whatever it takes to beat Trump.

Heres Klein:

Klein: You don't know how the party can replace him. You don't want to be blamed for any of this. You just stay quiet and walk the calm path to defeat. I think it is clear. People are weighing this set of things. Like,it would be quite unpleasant for me personally to come out against the president as an elected official in an Democratic party and weighing what will happen if Donald Trump wins and saying, in a revealed preference way, I can live with Donald Trump winning. And I've had people say that to me off the record, to be fair.

Tim Miller: Really?

Klein: Ive had top Democrats say to me basically something like, I dont know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are. But the reason Im acting the way I am is because I dont think that.

You can live with Trump?! Are you sure??? Like really, really sure?

These fuckers are out there telling those of us who are desperately arguing that the Democrats should present a path to victory, that we are helping Trump by demanding this bare minimum. Meanwhile, in private, they have come to terms with Trump winning.

Outrageous.

Grassroots Democrats who genuinely care about beating Trump should demand more from those they have entrusted with the responsibility to represent the party and successfully beat the Trumpian threat that they have been assured is existential.

Tim Miller

If I took a drink every time someone in one of my focus groups used the phrase the lesser of two evils to describe how they make their vote choice, I would die of alcohol poisoning.

But theres another thread thats emerging: voters comparing Joe Biden to their aging relatives who wont give up their car keys. Thats not an analogy you want to hear with democracy on the line. On Wednesday, these comparisons were more common than ever among the voters I talked toa group made up of those who cast ballots for Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020 but were now undecided.

I've seen firsthand how difficult it is to get, you know, mom's driver's license or aging parents license away from them, one participant said. What does that look like when it's the president of the United States?

This is fundamental to understanding voters fears about Bidens age. They are disinclined to give him the benefit of the doubt because many have seen this all before. They dont want their octogenarian father (or grandfather) running the country, let alone driving a car.

Most of these voters believed Biden should leave the race: Letting him continue to run is like not taking the keys away from your parents, one said. Anyones letting him run to this point is just being weak.

Sarah Longwell

Im still recovering from venturing into Trumps lizard brain yesterday, so this morning I wont expostulate at length. I do want to make one point, building on the excellent items youve just read.

Sarah reports that the participants in this weeks focus groups of Clinton 2016 and Biden 2020 voters are very concerned about Bidens age and his capacity to govern for another term.

As they should be. And as they have been for a long time.

There has always been wide support for the idea that Biden should be a one-term president. Biden himself said in March 2020 that he viewed himself as a bridge, not anything else.

Obviously the evidence of Bidens decline, in the debate two weeks ago and more broadly evident in recent months, only makes that sentiment more powerful. Its reasonable for voters to want Biden to be a one-term president.

Its not reasonable, on the other hand, to have Donald Trump as our next president. And a majority of Americans have also consistently balked at that, as well. Theres not as big a majority in resistance to that prospect as there should be, but still, its a majority.

So Americans dont want Trump, and they think Biden is too old. They are right on both counts.

Which brings us to Tims piece. Most of the time, in a representative democracy, voters have no direct way to effectuate their wishes and to solve the problems they see. It is the job of elitesrepresentative and responsive and responsible elitesto help do this.

Every society is going to have elites. In a liberal democracy, we try to structure things so that the power of those elites is checked. We try to see to it that elites are responsive to the broader public, that they can check and balance each other, and that, hopefully, they have a real sense of responsibility as well.

There is an organization that has been devised to try to tie together elites and the public in necessary and beneficial ways. That organization is the modern political party. Modern democracy depends on political parties to tie together the people and the elites, to ensure the circulation of elites, to arrange as much as possible for elites to be both responsive and responsible.

The failure of the Republican Party to do one of the main things a political party is supposed to doto check truly malevolent demagoguesis a signal elite failure of the last decade. Its been terrible to see for those of us who once had an attachment to and respect for that party. More important, its been terrible for the country.

Now its the Democratic Party that is being put to the test. Can Democratic elites get Joe Biden to step aside? Can they then arrange a process that allows for an open competition whose result will be responsive to public sentiment? This process will be somewhat more reminiscent of the old way convention delegates, influenced by party elites, selected presidential candidates. It produced some pretty good presidents!

This is the historic task of the elites of the Democratic Party today.

A Democratic Party that can rise to the occasion, and help arrange for Joe Biden to step aside in favor of a candidate able to win in 2024 and fit to serve for the next four years, would be a party whose voters and elites would be worthy of respect and support.

William Kristol

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Sam Stein asks: Upset at Biden for Sticking It Out? Blame the Voters. Why the voters? The presidents ability to survive has little to do with the steps hes taken. Its because voters can be weird and inconsistent.

About a third of [Barack] Obama 08 voters thought he might have been born in a foreign country. They still voted for him, said Stu Stevens, the longtime GOP political operative who, under Donald Trump, grew disaffected with his party. How many 1992 [Bill] Clinton voters thought he was trustworthy and honest? How many 2024 voters think a convicted felon should be president?

We have a strange human ability to hold contradictory ideas and decide which to ignore, he added. People are weird and inconsistent.

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The Bonfire of the Democrats - The Bulwark

For years, Democrats mocked Republicans for their politically craven fealty to former president Donald Trump.

They rolled their eyes when their Republican colleagues claimed they just hadnt seen the latest tweet. They talked knowingly about how, behind closed doors, many Republicans conceded that, yes, they wished Trump would just disappear Rumpelstiltskin-style, in a poof of smoke never to be heard from again.

But now, theyre borrowing a page from the Republican playbook.

Following President Bidens halting and politically damaging debate performance on June 27, Democratic lawmakers and strategists who regularly lambasted Republicans are offering one, often painfully candid, assessment in private (Biden cannot beat Trump and needs to step aside) and a different, less-than-truthful one in public (Biden had one bad night, but hes up for the job of beating Trump).

They have also begun offering variations of the I just need to see more of Biden to feel confident in supporting him excuse their version of the fail-safe Republican I didnt see the tweet chestnut.

Weve spent years shaming Republicans for blindly following Trump off the proverbial cliffs, especially when it meant an electoral disaster for their party, like the cycles of 2018, 2020, and 2022, said Michael LaRosa, a former Biden White House communications official. It turns out, were just as loyal to the name or leader of our party, as well, even if it invites political risk for everyone in the party running on the ballot.

In an op-ed in the New York Times on Wednesday, actor George Clooney, a prominent Democratic donor, also said the quiet part out loud, calling on party leaders to stop telling us that 51 million people didnt see what we just saw.

We love to talk about how the Republican Party has ceded all power, and all of the traits that made it so formidable with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, to a single person who seeks to hold on to the presidency, and yet most of our members of Congress are opting to wait and see if the dam breaks, Clooney wrote, before urging Democrats to speak the truth.

Of course, the situations are hardly analogous. With Trump who can be bullying, cruel, misogynistic and routinely traffics in racist tropes and falsehoods issues of character are what have long repelled Republican voters and officials alike.

During the 2016 presidential race, an Access Hollywood video emerged of Trump boasting about groping women, and more than a dozen women came forward accusing him of sexual misconduct. Last year, a New York jury found that Trump sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll and, more recently, another New York jury convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He also refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, encouraging his supporters to do the same a decision that ultimately contributed to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

By contrast, Bidens only sin in the minds of his supporters right now is aging, and publicly grappling with the indignities and fragility of entering his ninth decade.

I reject the scale of Bidens failures compared to Trumps its just not a comparison, said Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist and ardent Trump critic who works as a writer for the Bulwark website.

But, Miller added, he nonetheless sees similarities between his former party and how Democrats are handling the current moment.

The gap between private and public as a means of self-protection, of career protection, is very similar shrouding that careerist unwillingness to say the truth in some fake, high-minded notion that theyre doing the right thing in private, Miller said.

Even here, Democrats on the whole are being more candid than many Republicans beholden to Trump. So far, 12 House members and one senator have called for Biden to step aside as the partys presidential nominee, and several other lawmakers from both chambers have gone public with their concerns. On Wednesday, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pointedly told MSNBCs Morning Joe that Biden who has repeatedly said he has no plans to bow out needs to make a decision on whether he is running for president.

During the Trump years and even now the Republicans who dared to publicly utter what many of their colleagues privately whispered could almost be boiled down to a lonely trio: Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. (The two House members no longer hold office, and Romney is retiring when his term ends at the end of this year.)

Will Ritter, co-founder of Poolhouse, a center-right ad agency, said that during Trumps presidency, the constant message from Democrats was brokered convention, 25th Amendment, protecting the party, protecting democracy.

Now, however, Ritter said, the Democrats are headed over a cliff, and the new message has become one bad night and hes always had a stutter a reference to comments from Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a co-chair of Bidens campaign, who said Tuesday that Biden has long had a stutter and should not be held to too high a standard.

Were getting honest talk from George Clooney, and cute word games from almost every elected Democrat, he said.

Since Bidens debate debut, the presidents team has also lost credibility with the media a public rupture that comes after years of Biden aides browbeating reporters for daring to broach the age of the 81-year-old president.

The other point Republican staffers have just been laughing about is how finally the Biden administration is getting a big dose of what the normal Republican candidate faces in terms of the press, said Elise Jordan, a former George W. Bush staffer and aide on the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who now considers herself an independent. Its just so much harder to deal with, and its not going to end, either.

Biden, too, is exhibiting some characteristics that are shared by Trump and some other politicians. He distrusts negative polls. He has begun lashing out at elites and the media. He is now relying heavily on what he personally sees and hears, in situations tailored only to feature his supporters. And he has surrounded himself with a small, insular circle reluctant to bring him bad news.

Jordan said her takeaway from watching Bidens interview with ABC Newss George Stephanopoulos last Friday was that Biden was absolutely Trumpish.

He was so arrogant and seemed to feel entitled to the office, not that it was an honor to serve, and he didnt seem to be concerned with democracy, which is allegedly the whole reason for his candidacy, Jordan said.

In some ways, the about-face from many Democrats may not matter. A key voting bloc this election cycle is the double hater voters disillusioned with both major-party options. Nonetheless, many remain driven by negative partisanship the belief that the other side is so cosmically awful that party tribalism kicks in and they will show up and vote for just about anyone to stop, in the case of Democrats, Trump.

LaRosa, for instance, describes himself as a Biden supporter who has never supported a challenge to Biden or a third-party candidate. But since leaving the White House, he has at times been publicly critical of Democrats and the Biden operation, and noted their strategy for the last year has been to deny data, undermine or ridicule anyone who questions them, and wage war against the free press.

Now, President Biden is left without any goodwill and his message is undercut, LaRosa said. You cant say that Trump is a threat to democracy while you crucify reporters for asking questions, tell us not to believe poll after poll, and manipulate the primary process to crush your political opposition.

Its all, he added, sort of Trumpian, to be honest.

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Analysis | Democrats criticize Biden privately, back him publicly. Sound familiar? - The Washington Post

President Biden in Harrisburg, Pa., on Sunday. As lawmakers returned to Washington, Biden sent them a two-page letter telling them to stop speculating about his departure, because he's not leaving. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images hide caption

President Biden sent a two-page letter to Democratic lawmakers on Monday to say that I am firmly committed to staying in this race," saying speculation over his future was helping former President Donald Trump and that it was time to stop.

The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And its time for it to end. We have one job, Biden said.

Biden, 81, has been insistent that he would continue his campaign even after he badly faltered in a debate with Trump a performance that alarmed Democrats worried about his ability to run, win and govern. He has said he had a cold and jet lag, and has been working since to try to demonstrate he is still up to the job.

On Monday morning, he made an unusual live call in to MSNBC's Morning Joe and angrily defended his electoral and policy record. He angrily expressed his frustration with the Democrats who are questioning his stamina.

"I'm not going to explain anymore about what I should or shouldn't do I am running," Biden said during the 20-minute conversation with the show's hosts.

"I don't care what those 'big names' think. They were wrong in 2020, they were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They're wrong in 2024," Biden said.

He said he last had a neurological exam as part of his annual physical, which the White House disclosed in February.

Biden spoke with donors on a campaign call on Monday, and was preparing to speak with world leaders in Washington for the NATO summit this week. He is slated to hold a solo press conference on Thursday.

Biden dared would-be candidates to challenge him at the Democratic convention next month.

"Come on, give me a break. Come with me. Watch. Watch," he said, referencing voter support in recent campaign stops. "I'm getting so frustrated by the elites... in the party who 'they know so much more.' But if any of these guys don't think I should run, run against me. Go ahead. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention."

In his letter, Biden said that Democratic voters had spoken during the primaries and that it was their decision to make, not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors.

This was a process open to anyone who wanted run. Only three people chose to challenge me. One fared so badly that he left the primaries to run as an independent. Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated, he said, apparently referring to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., respectively.

NPR's Elena Moore contributed to this report .

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Biden tells Democrats he's not leaving the race, and it's time to stop talking about it - NPR