U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a hearing at the Broward County Governmental Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 2, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS)
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday night abruptly scheduled an unusual weekend meeting with top Democratic colleagues as party anxiety festers over whether Joe Biden should remain in the presidential race.
Even as the Democratic establishment on Capitol Hill and elsewhere continued to publicly support Biden’s campaign, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois told MSNBC that the president should not run.
Jeffries has not provided the lawmakers, top Democrats on committees, with a specific topic for the Sunday afternoon virtual session, which was confirmed by a House Democratic official who’s familiar with the plan.
But the meeting will occur just a day before the House reconvenes in Washington for the first time since Biden’s disastrous debate performance with former President Donald Trump on June 27, which sent tremors across the party ecosystem. House Democrats will hold a broader, caucus-wide closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
A number of those Democrats are publicly raising questions about whether Biden can defeat Trump and has the mental and physical stamina for four more years in office.
The planned meeting was reported earlier by NBC News.
Some lawmakers in competitive districts — and others who are not — are expressing worries, largely in private, over the down-ballot effects of the debate fallout and what it means for the chances of Democrats taking back the House majority or holding onto their narrow control of the Senate.
Before Quigley’s remarks, a couple of other congressional Democrats have gone so as far as to call for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
“Your legacy is set,” Quigley said. “We owe you the greatest debt of gratitude. The only thing you can do now to cement that for all time and prevent utter catastrophe is to step down and let someone else do this.”
Publicly, Jeffries has remained supportive of Biden, but has been fielding calls from rank-and-file members.
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