By The opinion
17 Jul 2024, 21:09 PM EDT
House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and the Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, In separate private meetings with President Biden over the past week, Biden was told that his continued run in the 2024 election jeopardizes the Democratic Party’s ability to gain control of either chamber of Congress in the coming year, ABC News and The Washington Post reported.
Jeffries met with Biden on Thursday night at the White House and Schumer met with Biden on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
At the meetings, Each congressional leader discussed his members’ concerns that Biden could deprive them of majorities in Congressgiving Republicans a much easier path to push through legislation, according to four people briefed on the meetings who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Washington Post to describe the private encounters.
Democratic leaders issued only brief statements after the meetings acknowledging that they occurred, but saying little or nothing about the substance.
The Biden campaign and the White House have also not provided public summaries of the meetings.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, told Joe Biden that it would be better for the president to withdraw from the election.
When ABC asked him about thisSchumer’s spokesman declined to comment on the details of the meeting. and merely said that “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his group.”
Hakeem Jeffries has expressed a similar view to Biden, according to a familiar source. A Jeffries spokesperson tells me, “The letter sent by Leader Hakeem Jeffries to his House Democratic colleagues speaks for itself. “It was a private conversation that will remain private.”
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) July 17, 2024
Later, Leader Schumer’s spokesman added“Unless ABC’s source is Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden, the reports are idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed his caucus’s views directly to President Biden on Saturday.”
Biden continues to enjoy strong support from some influential and powerful figures in the Democratic Party, including the Congressional Black Caucus and progressive leaders such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
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