WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., presented President Joe Biden with polling data in a “blunt” one-on-one meeting Saturday as Democrats debate whether the president should continue to run for re-election after a weak debate performance last month, two sources familiar with their discussion said.
The sources would not say if Schumer directly called on Biden to consider dropping out of the race against former President Donald Trump, but the Senate Democratic leader shared polling that reflected the current state of the race and how it could impact the party going forward, they said.
Much of the recent public polling reflects that Biden narrowly trails Trump nationally and the former president leads in several key battleground states, though much of the data remains within the margin of error.
The two met without staff in the room at Biden’s home in Rehoboth, Delaware, the sources said.
Spokespeople for the White House, the Biden campaign and Schumer refused to entertain direct questions about whether Schumer asked Biden to step aside, saying it was a private meeting between the two men.
In response to reports that Schumer asked Biden to step down, a spokesperson for Schumer called it “idle speculation” on a private meeting.
“Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday,” the spokesperson said.
Biden has acknowledged that he had a bad debate night in June but has increasingly bristled at suggestions that he should drop out of the race, saying he intends to stay in and beat Trump.
“I’m old,” Biden told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview on Monday. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, No. 1. And No. 2, my mental acuity’s been pretty damn good. I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long, long time in 3½ years. So I’m willing to be judged on that.”
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have said they are communicating with their caucuses and sharing their members’ views with Biden and his campaign.
Jeffries assured Democratic members who want Biden to step aside that he would communicate their message and urgency to the president, according to a Democratic congressional source, noting that Jeffries had “gotten an earful” from these lawmakers in recent days.
“As far as we understand, he did just that,” the source said. “He expressed what is fundamentally the will of the caucus.”
Twenty congressional Democrats have called on Biden to end his campaign, with California Rep. Adam Schiff, a former Intelligence Committee chair who is running for the Senate, on Wednesday becoming the highest-profile member to do so.
When asked whether he’d join those calls, Schumer has repeatedly told reporters: “I’m for Joe.”
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said that Biden has reiterated to Schumer and Jeffries that “he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”
Biden will now be sidelined from the campaign trail for some time after he tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meanwhile, has said that she’ll support whatever decision Biden makes — even as he’s said multiple times that he has decided to stay in the race.
As some lawmakers have continued to raise concerns about Biden’s fitness, Schumer and Jeffries joined a successful push to delay a virtual roll call to formally renominate Biden until Aug. 1, before the Democratic National Convention.
Former Rep. Cedric Richmond, a former White House official and co-chair of Biden’s 2020 campaign, spent time with Biden on Tuesday and said: “He looks good. He sounds good. He’s out there sparring.”
Richmond said that Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., another key Biden ally who was with them on Tuesday, is fully on board with the president’s re-election effort.
“Clyburn’s where I am,” Richmond said. “We’re rolling with him until the wheels fall off. Full disclosure: I think we’re going to win.”
