After House Democrats’ gathering to discuss President Joe Biden’s future on Tuesday morning, Rep. Ro Khanna of California — a surrogate for Biden’s reelection campaign — told me that the conversation among his colleagues on the topic was just about over.
“The consensus is that President Biden’s our nominee,” Khanna said. “I think there’s a recognition that he’s made a decision that he’s running, and he enjoys the support of a lot of senior leaders and important caucuses, like the [Congressional Black Caucus], and we’re moving forward.”
On Thursday, the California Democrat offered a rather different assessment. “I think there’s a sense that we need to have the conversation open still, and listen to people,” he said. “It shifts every day. One day they’re like, ‘100 percent, he’s in.’ The other day it’s like, ‘oh, maybe not.'”
Those shifts haven’t been taking place at the White House, at least publicly. Biden has reiterated that he’s staying in the race, he’s the Democratic nominee, he won the party’s (uncompetitive) primaries, and he doesn’t want Democrats to continue talking about this. He’s done it several times.
The shifts have been happening on Capitol Hill, spearheaded by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House who remains a well-respected figure in the party. During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday — the same program where Biden urged his doubters to “challenge me at the convention” on Monday — Pelosi said that it’s “up to the president to decide if he is going to run.”
“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision,” Pelosi said. “Because time is running short.”
“Gaslighting,” a term far too often used as a substitute for “lying,” refers to the manipulation of a person’s perception of reality by feeding them false information. It’s a charge that some Democrats made about the Biden campaign’s messaging in the wake of the president’s disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump last month. Everything’s fine, we’re moving forward, nothing to see here. Now, Democrats in Congress — by suggesting that Biden hasn’t made his decision after all — sure look like they’re returning the favor.
Pelosi’s comments have shaken things up. After a lull at the beginning of this week, the calls for Biden to step aside from Democratic lawmakers are growing once more. The situation for the president once again feels untenable. As Khanna said, things shift every day, so it’s still difficult to make a prediction about the end result at this point. Biden’s press conference tonight will be pivotal. But for now, the silence that Biden and congressional leaders tried to enforce on Monday has failed to hold.
At Hakeem Jeffries weekly press conference on Thursday, I asked the House Minority Leader whether he believed Biden had made his final decision about whether to stay in the race. If that were the case, Jeffries could have said “yes.” Instead, he offered a version of the statement that gave in response to three of the 11 questions he fielded about Biden.
“House Democrats are engaged in conversations with House Democrats at this moment in time. Those conversations have been candid, clear-eyed and comprehensive,” Jeffries said. He likes alliteration. The Democratic leader clearly isn’t taking “no” for an answer yet either.
It’s probably a stretch to say that these Democrats are actually gaslighting Biden. What they’re doing instead is something far more delicate: Signaling to the president that they’re not satisfied with him staying in the race, while doing their best not to upset his ego, lest their efforts to nudge him out backfire. After all, the president is known to be stubborn. He’s shown as much over the course of the last week as he’s not only insisted that he’s the best candidate to defeat Trump, but engaged in a straight-up denial of the reality of his poor polling.
That need for delicacy, however, has led to a degree of confusion. On Thursday, I asked Rep. Jim Clyburn — the South California Democrat who arguably saved Biden’s candidacy in 2020 with his endorsement — whether he believes Biden’s made his final decision.
“I am ridin’ with Biden, no matter what his decision is. Whether or not it’s final, I don’t know,” said Clyburn. “But I’m with him. I have no idea what’s going on in his head. But I’m taking him at his word.”
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