The exhaustive efforts of Democratic lawmakers to get President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid were detailed in a new bombshell report from The New York Times.
Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater reported on the conversations Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and others had with Biden and his team in the days leading up to the president dropping his reelection effort and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in a report based on interviews with half a dozen people involved with the “private push” against Biden. The accounts are part of the upcoming book Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man With Rats in His Walls Broke Congress.
Here are the five biggest revelations from the explosive piece.
SCHUMER URGES BIDEN NOT TO RUN
In a July 13, 2024 meeting, a tense Schumer got very real with Biden about his chances against President-elect Donald Trump, informing him that a secret ballot in the Democratic Senate caucus would get him about five yes votes. He told him he had maybe a 5% chance of victory following his first debate with Trump.
“My guess is you have about a 5 percent chance. None of your pollsters disagree with me,” Schumer told Biden.
Schumer warned Biden that remaining in the race could turn him into one of history’s “darkest figures.”
“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,” the Democratic leader said. “But worse — you go down in American history as one of the darkest figures.”
Schumer’s meeting came after days of lawmakers in his caucus raising alarms about Biden’s age and electability.
“I wouldn’t run, and I’m urging you not to run,” Schumer told Biden. According to the Times piece, Schumer broke down crying after the meeting where Biden seemed unaware of concerns that had been told to his team. Biden quit the race about a week after his meeting with Schumer.
OBAMA TELLS SCHUMER TO GET BIDEN TO STEP ASIDE DUE TO ‘FRAGILE RELATIONSHIP’
Shortly after the Trump and Biden debate, former President Barack Obama became concerned with Democrats’ election chances, but told Schumer he was the wrong “messenger” to tell Biden to drop out due to their “fragile relationship.”
“You may be a better one,” Obama reportedly told Schumer.
Tension between Obama and Biden stems from Obama urging Biden not to run in 2016 and instead supporting Hillary Clinton against Trump.
According to the report:
As days ticked by, Mr. Obama worried that Democrats were doing nothing. He told Mr. Schumer that he himself had a fragile relationship with his former vice president, who still carried a chip on his shoulder over Mr. Obama’s decision to support Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in 2016. Having urged him not to run back then, Mr. Obama told Mr. Schumer, he wasn’t sure if he was the best messenger to tell Mr. Biden to step aside now.