Chuck Schumer Reveals Private Conversations With Biden Urging President To End 2024 Campaign
Sen. Chuck Schumer, longtime A powerful player of the Democratic Party and former Senate Majority Leader, revealed his significant behind-the-scenes role in persuading President Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“If you run and you lose to Trump, and we lose the Senate, and we don’t get the House back, that 50 years of incredible, wonderful work is gone,” Schumer told Biden in a private conversation at the presidential palace. Rehobeth Beach House, according to The New York Times. “But even worse – you went down in American history as one of the darkest figures.”
“If I were you,” Schumer told the president, “I would not be running, and I urge you not to run.”
Senator Chuck Schumer, the longtime Democratic powerhouse and former Senate Majority Leader, has revealed his significant behind-the-scenes role in persuading President Biden to drop out of the presidential race. (Getty Images)
After Biden’s disastrous performance in a debate against President-elect Donald Trump in late June, Democratic heavyweights like Schumer and others began debating with Biden about the future of the campaign. Schumer spoke directly to donors, telling them to wait and see what Biden would do.
But privately, Schumer urged donors and allies to keep quiet about his concerns about Biden’s age and ability to finish the campaign, the Times reported.
“Don’t be public,” Schumer said. “That will help him come back, and you have to let the dust settle. But if you can, call whoever you know in the campaign. Call the White House.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries also worked to push Biden out of the campaign in favor of another, younger candidate: Vice President Kamala Harris. (Getty Images)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries also worked to push Biden out of the campaign in favor of another, younger candidate: the vice president Kamala Harris.
“We don’t have the data at this point,” Jeffries told allies in the final months of the campaign, the Times reported. “But the most powerful narrative in American politics is change. Vice President Harris would represent change.”
Some of Biden’s supporters continued to defend his ability to serve as president and as the Democratic nominee, including Steve Ricchetti, an adviser to the president.
“We can get through it,” Ricchetti said, according to the Times. “We think our allies on the Hill are wrong.”
Many top Democratic Party leaders have called on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, leaving room for Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the party’s presidential nominee. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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In the months since Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and others media companies revealed that advisers close to the president had long been concerned about Biden’s health and energy.
According to a Times report from December: “[Biden] every day he looks a little older and slower. Aides say he remains quite sharp in the Situation Room, urging world leaders to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon or deal with the chaos of the Syrian rebellion. But it’s hard to imagine he seriously thought he could do the most stressful job in the world for another four years.”
Lindsay Kornick of Fox News contributed to this report.
