HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania – President Joe Biden urged his supporters to stay together during a series of stops in the important thing U.S. state of Pennsylvania, while some leading Democrats in Congress privately suggested it was time for him to present up his re-election bid as doubts about his fitness to serve one other term intensify.
At a stirring service in front of the sunlit stained-glass windows of Mount Airy Church of God in Christ in Philadelphia, Biden, 81, joked, “I know I look 40,” but “I've been doing this a long time.”
“I have never been more optimistic, frankly, about the future of America if we stick together,” he said.
There and at a subsequent rally with union members in Harrisburg, Biden gave short speeches that touched on familiar themes, but he also left loads of room for key supporters to debate their support for him. In this fashion, the Pennsylvania swing seemed designed more to show the president's support from key political circles than to prove that he still has 4 more terms ahead of him.
However, his party stays deeply divided.
As Congress prepares to reconvene this week, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries convened key committee members on Sunday afternoon to debate their views. Several Democratic committee chairs said Biden should resign, based on two people accustomed to the meeting who were granted anonymity to talk about it.
Other leading Democrats, including members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, argued just as forcefully that Biden should remain the party's selection. The discussion was wide-ranging, with committee chairs expressing differing views on the situation but no consensus on what ought to be done, the people said.
Biden spent the weekend making personal calls with lawmakers. He also participated in a call with campaign officials and reiterated that he has no plans to drop out of the race. Instead, the president pledged to campaign harder and increase his political travel going forward, based on two individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity to debate private conversations.
One Democrat the president spoke to, Senator Alex Padilla of California, said he and others are pushing the Biden campaign to “let Joe be Joe, get him out of there.”
“I am absolutely convinced that we can turn things around,” Padilla told the Associated Press.
Still, not less than five Democratic lawmakers have publicly called on him to desert his re-election campaign before November. A face-to-face meeting next week means more opportunity for lawmakers to debate concerns about Biden's ability to see out the remaining 4 months of the campaign – not to say 4 more years within the White House – and his real prospects of beating presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Biden's campaign also called and texted lawmakers to stop further possible defections, while increasingly calling on outstanding Biden supporters to talk out on his behalf.
Nevertheless, calls for an exit got here from various quarters.
Alan Clendenin, a Tampa city councilman and member of the Democratic National Committee, called on Biden on Sunday to “step down and allow Vice President Kamala Harris to advance his agenda as our Democratic nominee.” Director Rob Reiner, who has helped organize glitzy Hollywood fundraisers for Biden up to now, posted on X: “It's time for Joe Biden to step down.”
The Democratic Party Convention is fast approaching and Biden's interview with ABC on Friday didn’t persuade a few of the remaining skeptics.
Barry Goodman, a Michigan lawyer and Democratic fundraiser, said he supports Biden but would support Harris if he drops out. That's notable because Goodman was also finance co-chair of each statewide campaigns of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who can also be being discussed as a candidate.
“We don't have much time,” Goodman said. “I don't think the president will come out. But if he does, I think it will be Kamala.”
There was no such suggestion in Mount Airy, where Pastor Louis Felton compared the president to Joseph and the biblical story of his “coat of many colors.” In it, Joseph was sold into Egypt as a slave by his jealous brothers, only to eventually gain a high place in Pharaoh’s kingdom and have his brothers ask him for help without initially acknowledging him.
“Never shut Joseph down,” Felton pleaded. Then, referring to Democrats who had called on Biden to resign, he added, “That's what's going on, Mr. President. People are jealous of you. Jealous of your persistence, jealous of your favor. Jealous of God's hand over your life.”
Felton also offered a prayer, saying, “Our president is discouraged. But today, by your Holy Spirit, renew his mind, his soul, his body.”
After the service, Biden visited a campaign office in Philadelphia, where Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who won a troublesome 2022 election while recovering from a stroke, voiced his strong support.
“There is only one man who has ever beaten Trump,” Fetterman said. “And he will do it twice and defeat him for good.”
Later, because the president stepped off Air Force One in Harrisburg, he was asked if the Democratic Party was behind him. He answered emphatically, “Yes.”
Rep. Madeleine Dean, also a Democrat from Pennsylvania, also attended the union event and said, “Democracy is at stake. There is one man who understands that: Joe Biden.”
Isabel Afonso, who watched Biden's speech in Harrisburg, said she was frightened when she saw the president's performance at the talk, but she doesn’t consider he should drop out of the race and that he can still win. “I know he is old, but I know that if something happens to him, a reasonable person will replace him,” said 63-year-old Afonso.
Others, nevertheless, aren’t entirely convinced.
Biden has declined to undergo independent cognitive testing, arguing that the president's day by day rigors are proof enough of his mental acuity. Still, California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff told NBC on Sunday that he can be “happy if both the president and Donald Trump took a cognitive test.”
Like some Democrats, Schiff also echoed Biden's statement through the ABC interview that a loss to Trump can be acceptable “as long as I do my best.”
“It's not just a question of whether he did his best,” Schiff said, “but rather whether he made the right decision to run or to pass the torch.”
Weissert and Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington, Michelle Price in New York, Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, and Bill Barrow in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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