Politics
Campaign crisis: Dems who have called for Biden to drop out or raised concerns about his health
President Biden’s catastrophic performance at last week’s debate has sparked panic among the Democratic Party’s hierarchy, with key players said to be mulling how to get him to abandon his re-election bid.
The situation has plunged the party into crisis and threatens to drive a wedge between Biden loyalists and elected officials in swing districts ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Biden’s top campaign aides have been working damage control with major donors over the past week, while the White House — and Biden himself — remain adamant he is the right man to lead the party against former President Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee.
BIDEN RESISTS MOUNTING PRESSURE TO STEP ASIDE
Democrats who say Biden should drop out
- Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas: “I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”
- Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.: “I’m going to support [Biden], but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere … What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility of keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”
- Adam Frisch, candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District: “I thank President Biden for his years of service, but the path ahead requires a new generation of leadership to take our country forward.”
VAN JONES SAYS DEMOCRATS NOW PLANNING ON ‘HOW’ TO REPLACE BIDEN WITH HARRIS
Democrats who have raised concerns
- Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.: “I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’ When people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate of both candidates.”
- Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez, D-Wash.: “About 50 million Americans tuned in and watched that debate. I was one of them for about five very painful minutes. We all saw what we saw, you can’t undo that, and the truth, I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump.”
- Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine: “In 2025, I believe Trump is going to be in the White House. Maine’s representatives will need to work with him when it benefits Mainers, hold him accountable when it does not and work independently across the aisle no matter what.”
- Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa.: “Maybe folks don’t want to hear, but we have timing that is running out. Time is not on our side. We have a few months to do a monumental task. It’s not cheap and it’s not easy. If our president decides this is not a pathway forward for him, we have to move very quickly. There’s not going to be time for a primary. That time is past. The vice president is the obvious choice. She’s sitting right there.”
- Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass: “I deeply respect President Biden and all the great things he has done for America, but I have grave concerns about his ability to defeat Donald Trump.”
- Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.: “I do know this: I think that the American people want an explanation; they need to be reassured, and I hope that over the next several days, we’ll do that.”
- Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill.: “I think we gotta be honest with ourselves, this wasn’t just one bad debate performance. There are very real concerns, and you have to take the voters for where they are, not where you want them to be.”
- Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.: “I really do criticize the campaign for a dismissive attitude towards people who are raising questions for discussion. That’s just facing the reality that we’re in.”
- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.: “I think like a lot of people, I was pretty horrified by the debate… I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign that’s ready to go and win, that the president and his team are being candid with us about his condition — that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days.”
Democrats who support Biden as nominee
Twenty-three Democratic governors from across the nation descended on the White House on Wednesday evening to meet with the embattled president, but after the gathering, only Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who leads the Democratic Governors Association, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore spoke to reporters to express their support.
Moore described the meeting with Biden as “honest” and “candid” and said that the governors were “going to have his back.”
Hochul said President Biden was “in it to win it” and that the trio had pledged their support to him “because the stakes could not be higher,” invoking on the eve of Independence Day, the fight against tyranny.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many commentators have proposed as a possible Biden replacement, also took part in the White House meeting and backed the 81-year-old.
“I heard three words from the President tonight — he’s all in. And so am I,” Newsom posted on X on Wednesday night. Newsom also publicly backed Biden immediately following the debate.
“You don’t turn your back because of one performance,” Newsom said after the debate. “What kind of party does that? This president has delivered. We need to deliver for him at this moment.”
Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker has also publicly backed Biden, as has Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Hawaii Gov. Josh Green.
Elsewhere, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a longtime Biden ally, has also expressed his support, as well as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
“A setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback,” Jeffries posted to X on Saturday.
Fox News’ Kyle Morris contributed to this report.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Politics
Top Dems planning meeting about Biden's future despite president's vows to continue campaign
Top Democratic congressional leaders are planning to hold a meeting to discuss President Biden’s fledgling re-election campaign, even as Biden himself has struck a defiant tone amid calls to drop out of the race.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is leading a virtual meeting with top Democrats on Sunday, with leaders expected to discuss the path forward for Biden’s campaign, according to an NBC News report that has been confirmed by Fox News.
The meeting will feature Jeffries and top committee Democrats, a person familiar with the arrangement told Fox News, but will not be a meeting of the full Democratic caucus.
CRITICS PILE ON BIDEN FOLLOWING ABC INTERVIEW, BLAST HIS REFUSAL TO COMMIT TO COGNITIVE TEST: ‘DISQUALIFYING’
The meeting comes after Biden’s 22-minute interview with ABC News on Friday, which the Biden campaign hoped would ease fears that the president doesn’t have what it takes to continue the campaign and defeat former President Donald Trump in December. Instead, the interview set off a new round of fears among Democrats who were already concerned by Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week.
“Look, Biden looked better and certainly more coherent than he looked during the debate, but there’s nothing in this interview that is calming the nerves of jittery Democrats who fear that Joe Biden is on a trajectory to lose this race, to lose to Donald Trump,” ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl said after the interview.
Biden, however, struck a defiant tone, saying at one point that he would not drop out unless “the Lord Almighty were to come down and say, ‘Joe, get outta the race.’”
But Democrats, many of whom have expressed fears a lackluster performance by Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket and cost the party Congressional seats, are seemingly not persuaded.
PRESIDENT BIDEN FACES THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL WEEKEND OF HIS POLITICAL CAREER
The meeting of House committee leaders, which is slated for 2 p.m. Sunday, is not part of any regularly scheduled meeting for top Democrats, NBC reported. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is organizing a meeting among Democratic senators next week to discuss Biden’s electability and the potential fallout for down-ballot races.
While some Democrats have kept concerns about the president’s electability private, a growing number have publicly called on Biden to step aside.
Meanwhile, Biden defenders such as Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., have urged others not to panic. Fetterman told NBC News that he “can’t think of a single situation where panicking or freaking out has made a situation better.”
“He’s the one person who has beaten Trump before,” Fetterman said of Biden.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Politics
Your guide to Proposition 33: Effort to expand rent control
At the moment, state law limits rent increases for tenants in apartments and corporate-owned single-family homes that are older than 15 years. The cap is set at 5% plus inflation, with a maximum increase of 10%.
Local jurisdictions can impose stricter caps, but with limits.
State law generally prohibits local governments from putting rent control on single-family homes, as well as apartments built after February 1, 1995. In some cases, like the city of Los Angeles, that cut-off date is even earlier.
The law allows property owners to charge whatever they want when a unit becomes vacant. Once a new tenant moves in, the limitations take effect.
If Proposition 33 passes, it would repeal the state law that bans localities from capping rent on vacant units, single-family homes and apartments built after Feb. 1, 1995 or earlier.
Local governments wouldn’t be required to regulate rents on such properties, but they could if they wanted to.
Politics
Veterans respond to Biden claiming he's been 'in and out of battles': 'Don't make it about you'
President Biden claimed Thursday he’s been “in and out of battles” while addressing an audience of military service members and their families at Thursday’s White House Fourth of July Barbecue.
“And by the way, I’ve been all over the world with you. I’ve been in and out of battles,” the president, who never served in the military, though as Commander-in-Chief, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in February 2023 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in October 2023.
It’s not the first time Biden has come under fire for remarks to military service members. In 2019, Biden came under fire for conflating and misrepresenting war stories after the Washington Post exposed a “moving but false war story” told on the campaign trail. Biden, then the former vice president and candidate for president, later defended what he said, saying the “central point” was accurate.
Veterans 4 America First Institute, a non-profit veterans’ group, responded to Biden’s Fourth of July claims in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Peter O’Rourke is a former Acting Secretary for Veterans Affairs under President Trump and a veteran of both the Air Force and Navy. Darin Selnick, Former Veteran Affairs Advisor for the White House Domestic Policy Council, is also a former Air Force veteran. They both currently serve veterans in their roles with Veterans 4 America First.
GOLD STAR FAMILY SPEAKS OUT AFTER BIDEN FALSELY CLAIMS NO TROOPS HAVE DIED ON HIS WATCH: ‘SHAME ON YOU’
“It’s always bad form when a politician tries to make it about themselves and somehow equate their service with the service of those men and women who serve,” Selnick said. “So the only one who has been in battle are the men and women who served, not President Joe Biden.”
DEM GOVERNOR AND TOP BIDEN SURROGATE URGES PRESIDENT TO ‘CAREFULLY EVALUATE’ HIS PATH FORWARD
“The men and women who serve have been all over the world in battle. So just keep it to that. Don’t try to equate what you’re doing with that, cozy up and and and that sort of thing. Just speak about the servicemen and women, think about the country; don’t make it about you. That’s the sad part, because every time Joe Biden speaks he always somehow tries to make it about him,” Selnick added.
“…every time Joe Biden speaks he always somehow tries to make it about him.”
Former Acting Secretary of the VA Peter O’Rourke also critiqued the president’s claim.
“I think the disappointment Darin and I both share is the continued disrespect, whether it’s examples of veterans that have been harmed in ways that don’t make a lot of sense, or just not really providing the efforts that we’d love to see our presidents give when it comes to articulating their concerns or their feelings toward veterans,” he said.
O’Rourke continued, saying, “we saw this example, trying to find every opportunity to politicize, trying to sneak in a jab at his political opponent on a day where really, we should just be celebrating our independence. He was there to recognize and honor both veterans and active duty members.”
Veterans 4 America First Institute supports former President Trump for his military policy in November’s presidential election. Selnick told Fox News Digital, “we’re in a very crucial time both for the military and for the veterans who have left the military. We need a commander in chief that’s going to move things forward and do what’s right, for the veterans, and for the American people.”
Selnick added, “and that’s why we need Donald J. Trump back as commander-in-chief, because under him, we had a thriving military.”
Veterans 4 America First Institute’s mission as listed on their website is “To preserve and expand our nation’s commitment to our Veterans, military, and their families through public education and advocacy.”
The White House has not responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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