Sen. Chuck Schumer, a longtime Democratic Party power player 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 back the House, that 50 years of amazing, beautiful work goes out the window,” Schumer told Biden in a private conversation at the president’s Rehobeth Beach house, according to the New York Times. “But worse — you go down in American history as one of the darkest figures.”
“If I were you,” Schumer told the president, “I wouldn’t run, and I’m urging you not to run.”
After Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump in late June, Democratic Party heavyweights like Schumer began to discuss a campaign future with Biden.
Schumer spoke directly with donors, telling them to wait and see what Biden would do.
But in private, Schumer was urging donors and allies to be quiet about their concern over Biden’s age and ability to finish out the campaign, according to the Times.
“Do not be public,” Schumer said. “That will get his back up, and you’ve got to let the dust settle. But if you can, call whoever you know in the campaign. Call the White House.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was also working to push Biden off the campaign in favor of another, younger candidate: Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We don’t have data at this moment,” 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 candidate for the Democratic Party, 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.”
In the months after Biden announced he would be withdrawing from the presidential race, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have revealed that advisers close to the president have long been concerned about Biden’s health and energy.
According to a Times report from December: “[Biden] looks a little older and a little slower with each passing day. Aides say he remains plenty sharp in the Situation Room, calling world leaders to broker a cease-fire in Lebanon or deal with the chaos of Syria’s rebellion. But it is hard to imagine that he seriously thought he could do the world’s most stressful job for another four years.”
