House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Thursday he wants to hear from every Democrat in the House before convening his leadership team to "figure out the next step" of the party's response to the ongoing maelstrom surrounding President Joe Biden, Politico and Punchbowl News reported.
Jeffries' latest statement on the crisis comes one day after he assured Democrats in meetings that he will relay the concerns of the party to Biden, according to a CNN report Wednesday.
However, Jeffries said Thursday that no such meeting with Biden is scheduled as yet, according to Politico and Punchbowl.
The Biden campaign and White House officials are meeting with Senate Democrats Thursday afternoon. Lawmakers are set to leave for a weeklong recess Thursday.
Thus far, 10 House Democrats and one senator — Peter Welch, D-Vt. — have publicly called on Biden to exit the presidential race. Further, three more House Democrats — including senior Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. — told Jeffries on a Zoom call Sunday night that Biden should exit, CBS News reported. Nadler on Tuesday, however, publicly said he was "fully supportive" of Biden.
Jeffries has publicly backed Biden since his debate performance two weeks ago, but he has been in "listening mode" to rank-and-file Democrats who are nervous about Biden remaining on top of the Democrat ticket.
Biden sat down with ABC News for an interview that first aired last Friday. Biden vowed to remain in the race, dismissed the idea of undergoing an independent neurological and cognitive exam, and did little to assuage the anxieties of Democrat lawmakers and donors.
For example, Biden gave this reply when asked by George Stephanopoulos if he knew how badly he was doing in real time during the debate.
"The whole way I prepared — nobody's fault, mine; nobody's fault but mine," Biden told Stephanopoulos. "I prepared what I usually would do; sitting down as I did, come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized about partway through that, you know, all the — quoted The New York Times had me down 10 points before the debate, 9 now or whatever the hell it is.
"The fact of the matter is that, what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn't, I mean, the way the debate ran — not my fault, nobody else's fault, no one else's fault."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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