Day Four is another big one for my Biden Campaign Collapse Tracker series after what I'm calling the Long Holiday Weekend of Bad News That Wouldn't Quit. The name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, I know — like Presidentish Joe Biden trying to read aloud a Dick & Jane book to a kindergarten class after 4 p.m.
So let's jump right in.
After a conclave of House Democrats, "several attendees said Sunday that they believed Biden should step aside," the Wall Street Journal reported. The old "people familiar with the matter" told the Journal, "The members included top lawmakers on major committees including Reps. Jerry Nadler and Joe Morelle of New York, Adam Smith of Washington, Jim Himes of Connecticut, and Mark Takano of California."
Previously: Biden Campaign Collapse Tracker: 'It's Just My Brain'
Biden spent the weekend campaigning in Pennsylvania — which wouldn't be a swing state for almost any other Democrat — and even ditched the teleprompters to prove his brain isn't porridge, but "the president only spoke briefly at several events in the state," according to the WSJ.
HBO is hardly a hotbed of conservative thought, yet this spent the weekend as the official Sopranos account's pinned tweet.
https://t.co/7LoXGZrCHk pic.twitter.com/WVVtSfvs8Z
— The Sopranos (@TheSopranosX) July 6, 2024
When you're a Democrat who's lost the New Jersey mob...
Yet Biden remains dug in:
Really hard to put that "Democracy is on the ballot" talking point out there when the guy saying it is also saying that only God can remove him from office. https://t.co/okLTyNhLHm
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) July 7, 2024
The closest thing Biden got to good news broke Sunday evening when Axios reported on the "Senate Coup That Wasn't." (That's my headline, not theirs.) Stephen Neukam got the scoop that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) was getting Senate Democrats to meet on Monday "to discuss their support for President Biden continuing his re-election bid." However, "a person familiar with Warner's thinking told Axios that "details of the proposed meeting leaking out made it impossible for there to be a private conversation."
Previously for Our VIPs: Biden Campaign Collapse Tracker: That Narrative Isn't Going to Change Itself, Joe
But that isn't much of a reprieve. Senate Dems will hold their regularly scheduled caucus meeting on Tuesday, and it doesn't take a senator scorned to know what they'll talk about.
What is this "scorned senator" business? This from last week:
When Biden was asked about Sen. Mark Warner’s effort to replace him on the ticket, Biden said: “Mark’s a good man..…. he also tried to get the nomination too"
— Elizabeth Weibel (@elfaddis) July 6, 2024
Fact check: Mark Warner did not run for president and never has. pic.twitter.com/haQAndNcX5
Biden seems to have confused Warner — surprise! — with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who ran a short-lived presidential campaign in 2020. So Biden's brain lapse not only pissed off Warner, but a Bennet spokesperson also said Sunday, "Senator Bennet believes President Biden must reassure the American people that he can run a vigorous campaign to defeat Donald Trump" and that Bennet wants to discuss with other Dem senators "the most viable path forward in this existential election."
Previously: Biden Campaign Collapse Tracker: Capitol Hill Blues
So Biden's "good news" is that at least two senators are floating ditching him but that they'll have to put off doing anything about it for another 24 hours.
Can Biden survive the growing efforts by big-name members of his own party to oust him? That's what the Biden Campaign Collapse Tracker is all about, so come back Tuesday for the next edition.
Assuming he hasn't completely collapsed by then, of course.
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