Is Biden’s Fitness a Beltway “Bubble” Priority?
For some Democratic senators, this
has been a week split between two worlds. They have been bombarded with
questions from reporters this week, creating a chaotic scene as they navigate
the hallways. The topic, of course, is President Joe Biden—specifically whether he will and/or should step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Once inside their offices, the atmosphere shifts to one of relative calm, as senators and their staff focus on the day-to-day business of governing.
“Biden is a topic we’re hearing about from constituents, but not the topic,” said a top aide to a West
Coast Democrat who requested anonymity while discussing internal office
business. The aide said antisemitism on campus has been the highest concern to
constituents calling in to or emailing their Capitol and state offices, with
concerns over the president’s reelection bid accounting for “fewer than 50” daily calls to their
teams, plus roughly 3,000 emails since Biden underperformed against GOP nominee
Donald Trump at the CNN debate in Atlanta on July 27.
This is in stark contrast to the
number of calls and emails Democratic offices fielded from concerned
constituents during Trump’s presidency, a volume that peaked during Supreme
Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. “In terms of volume and overall
intensity, the Kavanaugh hearing was the most insane,” recalled one senior aide
to a Democratic senator who remembered emails arriving “in the hundreds of
thousands.”
On Tuesday, immigration casework—not
Biden—was the dominant topic of constituent calls for Senator Cory Booker when
I stopped by his Hill office in the
midafternoon. Desk assistants received four calls about immigration cases, one
about an event at a park in the Garden State, plus a fifth from a constituent
who was lost in the lobby and needed help finding Booker’s office. The office
did not receive any calls about Biden’s candidacy.
For Senator Ben Ray Luján, the
aftermath of last month’s fires and flooding
has been top of mind for constituents reaching out to his teams, though some
are concerned about Biden too. During last week’s recess, Luján said a
constituent approached him in the parking lot of his grocery store to say Biden
should step down. “I usually give myself an extra 30 minutes to an hour to get
groceries because people always want to talk,” said Luján.
So far, none of the 51 Democratic senators have openly called on Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee
for president, though Senators Tammy Baldwin, Tina Smith, Jeff Merkeley, and
Dick Durbin have said they are very concerned by what they are seeing from the
president. Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, Martin Heinrich, and Mark
Warner have indicated that they need reassurances from Biden, who is scheduled
to give his first press conference since the June debate on Thursday. Perhaps
most troublingly for the president, Democrats Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, and
Michael Bennet told their colleagues at a closed-door lunch on Tuesday that Biden cannot win.
But the extent to which the issue
consuming Congress is affecting constituents remains unclear. “This definitely
feels like a bubble moment,” said a Hill aide who coordinates constituent
casework for his office but is not authorized to speak on the record with
reporters. “People here in D.C., especially reporters, are obsessed with
whether Biden will stay or go, but our constituents are obsessed with other
things.”
On Tuesday, I asked aides from eight Senate Democratic offices whether Vice
President Kamala Harris was being discussed as a possible replacement for Biden
at the top of the Democratic ticket. “Certainly, but it feels premature,” said
one chief of staff who was skeptical whether Harris would have a better chance
against Trump than Biden. “In our office, we just aren’t obsessing over Biden
as much as the media because, no offense, our constituents don’t obsess over
Biden like you guys.”
