Over the weekend, shortly before a gunman fired on former President Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told a crowd gathered at a New York fundraiser that if President Biden remained at the top of Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the party would suffer significant losses down-ballot.
The fundraiser, which was in East Hampton, was private and the congressman’s remarks were reported by the New York Times Tuesday.
“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Schiff said, according to the Times, which cited a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”
After the shooting, which injured Trump and killed at least one rallygoer, news reporting on Democratic calls for Biden to step down as the party’s presidential nominee had slowed to a trickle. The Times’ reporting on Schiff’s weekend remarks brought the issue back into the post-assassination-attempt news cycle.
Now, the California lawmaker, who is the leading Democrat for a Senate seat from the state with the largest population in the U.S. — a home state he just so happens to share with Vice President Kamala Harris — is taking his private remarks public.
In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Schiff called on the President to drop out due to Schiff’s “serious concerns” about his ability to beat Trump in the fall:
In his statement, Schiff said Biden “has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better.”
“But our nation is at a crossroads,” he said. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Schiff said the “choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone,” but that he believes it is time for Biden “to pass the torch” and “secure his legacy of leadership” by allowing another Democrat to beat Trump.
Sen. Pete Welch (D-VT) and more them a dozen members of the House have also called on Biden to step aside, but Schiff is perhaps the most high profile Democrat to do so so far.
It is all unclear what this will mean for the Democratic Party ticket.
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Shorter: “I’m not certain Biden will win.”
That is a phantom fear. Biden already won once, and now he’s the incumbent. Biden will win unless we cock it up.
If Schiff thought Biden couldn’t govern, that would be worth considering. But he didn’t say that.
There is no candidate on Earth who can satisfy the requirement of “knowing ahead of time that victory is assured.” None. It is the height of folly to push out the only person who has defeated Trump, who currently enjoys an incumbency advantage, who has spent the last 3.5 years fighting for every constituency in a way that will pay off at the ballot box.
If we lose, it will be because asshats like Schiff let their fears, their rich donors, and the chattering class trick them into fumbling the ball at the 1-yard line.
I am so pissed off. The Democrats in the House and Senate had one job, and many of them can’t manage it. Their job was to back Biden and Harris and defeat TFG. And they are blowing it and playing into the hands of the TFG campaign. The campaign WAS an old guy vs. a moron. Now many Democrats are saying, yup, our guy is too old. Not worried about the moron winning at all.
Harris is a presumably competent choice for VP. The only job description for VP is to cast votes to break a tie in the Senate, go to funerals and be in reserve in case the President dies.
Look at LBJ. Vietnam may have been a disaster, but the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid. Truman. When he came into office he did not even know about the Manhattan Project. “Excuse me Mr. President, we are working on this weapon…” He made the difficult decision to use it. He desegregated the Armed Forces. He fired MacArthur.
The Representatives and Senators had one job, and they are blowing it!
Schiff 's concern trolling is a serious mistake for his own political future.
Schiff may think that Plan B is a better option that Plan A but unless there is some way to reach Plan B without causing immense damage to our chances that is irrelevant.
So far all that these ‘allies’ who wish to dump Biden while showering him with praise have accomplished is to conduct a circular firing squad to the vast amusement of the GOP.
Remember that our enemy knows that people like Schiff command a lot of respect. Organized Money knows it can get a weaker opponent if it tricks ~15 high-profile Dems into shitting the bed publicly. Schiff is in the crosshairs of a sophisticated influence campaign to trick him and others into bailing on Biden so that Dem voters won’t have the chance to support Biden.
Schiff got suckered. Maybe they appealed to his vanity, or his fears, or his campaign war chest. There are a ton of hooks. They just need one from each of a dozen people, and it’s over.
(Not you, @tpr)