WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s family has discussed what his withdrawal from the campaign would look like, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
The overall tone of the conversations was that if Biden decides to withdraw — as some of his aides are increasingly convinced he will — any withdrawal plan should put the Democratic Party in the best position to defeat former President Donald Trump while also being worthy of his more than 50 years of public service and service to his country, the people said.
Biden’s family has discussed specifically whether he wants to end his reelection bid in his own time and with a carefully calculated plan, and considerations of the impact of a campaign on his health, his family and the stability of the country are at the forefront of those discussions, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The prospect that Biden is considering stepping down, much less that his family is planning to do so, is an extraordinary development after he has repeatedly said he will not give up his position as the party’s presumptive nominee.
But as the days pass since that disastrous debate three weeks ago, concern is growing among party officials, donors and even those involved in his reelection campaign, even as Democrats watch Republicans rally around Trump, who survived an assassination attempt and accepted the party’s nomination on Thursday night.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates denied any such withdrawal discussions were taking place between the family members.
“That will never happen,” he said. “Those who make these allegations are not speaking on behalf of his family or team, and they will be proven wrong. Keep the faith.”
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon acknowledged that the campaign had experienced some “delays” but insisted they were “small movements” and that Biden was “absolutely” still in the race.
Ron Klain, Biden’s former White House chief of staff and adviser for decades, said in an interview that Biden has heard public and private voices saying he should drop out of the race.
“I think he’s feeling the pressure,” said Klain, who spoke with Biden recently. “I want him to stay.”
Klain’s view is that there’s no point in pushing Biden aside. He said some in the party are underestimating Trump at their own peril, and are downplaying the fact that Biden is the only person to have beaten Trump so far.
Biden and those closest to him are outraged by what they see as an underhanded and disrespectful attempt to oust him. His family is distraught and going through stages of anger and sadness at the way the president has been treated by people they considered friends.
“If this is what they wanted, there must have been a more dignified way to do it,” said a Biden supporter. “It’s wrong to treat a public servant who has given so much to this country.”
A person close to the reelection campaign said discussions about crafting a suitable plan for Biden’s departure from office are taking place among senior staff as well as the president’s family, though Bates denied such discussions are taking place.
Among Biden’s family members he has relied on most are his first wife, Jill Biden, his son Hunter, his sister Valerie Owens and several longtime aides who have been at the center of his discussions.
Biden has been on hiatus at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, since testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, but the debate over his political future has been heating up.
Several Biden aides called trusted allies on Thursday to gauge where they thought Biden stood politically, according to a person familiar with the calls.
Democratic lawmakers described Biden as a “thoughtful” man at the time, while a third party close to Biden said he was “fighting for his life” politically.
There is growing expectation among some allies that if Biden does step down, it could happen within days, but they also warn that the decision remains up to him and that he is unlikely to quit in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity.
“We don’t even know what we’ll do tomorrow,” a person close to Biden said of the possibility of an announcement being imminent.
Still, Biden is not immune to growing pressure from his own party, and has said since the debate that he might consider dropping out of the race if he doesn’t see a path to victory.
“I think it’s inevitable,” another person close to the reelection effort said of Biden dropping out of the race.
As reports emerged from NBC News and elsewhere that Biden was showing signs of changing his stance on remaining the nominee, rumors and reports — some of which the president’s allies flatly denied — began to fly, including speculation about when Biden might withdraw, whether he would immediately endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and who was on her shortlist of running mates.
Among the reports was that longtime speechwriter and historian Jon Meacham was writing Biden’s farewell speech.
Meacham denied the story.
“This report is completely false,” he said.
Amid the chaos, the Biden campaign sent talking points to Democrats, according to the Democratic strategy: “President Biden has not spoken to congressional leadership today. The President won 14 million votes in the Democratic Primary and became the party’s nominee. He is seeking reelection and that will not change until he is re-elected.”
With many in his own party opposed to him, Biden continued to check in with allies this week to gauge their sentiment.
“There are rumors going around that I am resigning, but I am not resigning,” Biden said Monday during a call with civil rights leader and MSNBC host the Rev. Al Sharpton, Sharpton said.
“Whatever decision you make, I will support you,” Sharpton reportedly told the president.
In an interview Thursday, Sharpton said legacy is something Biden “has to think about” as he considers his political future: “If there’s anybody who could come back, it’s Joe Biden. I don’t know if he’ll do that.”
Some in the Biden camp had hoped that Biden would be able to weather the storm of pressure to step down, that news events such as the Republican National Convention would distract the public from the question of when Biden would end his campaign. But even Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump did little to quell the furor surrounding Biden, which has only intensified since then.
The private pressure on Biden is driven mainly by fears among Democrats that his candidacy could cost them not only the White House and the Senate, but also their chances of controlling the House of Representatives, which explains why senior lawmakers are pressuring him to reconsider his decision to continue in the race.
“The House is in crisis,” said Brian Wolf, treasurer of House Majority PAC, the main super PAC that supports House Democratic candidates. “These candidates don’t deserve to be subjected to this.”
Wolf said that as Biden considers his options, Democratic incumbents and challengers in tough races cannot risk splitting their own coalitions of voters by publicly backing one side or the other.
“You can’t alienate the constituency that wants to support Biden or the constituency that wants to support somebody else,” he said.
