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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with President Joe Biden on Thursday evening as a growing number of endangered members of the House Democratic caucus come forward to urge Biden to step aside.
But Jeffries — who hopes to one day clinch a majority in the House and become the first Black speaker — withheld his endorsement of the president in the meeting, CNN reported.
Jeffries sent a letter to his caucus on Friday morning to announce that they’d had the private meeting, which came the same day as Biden’s first solo press conference in months. The Democratic House leader offered little detail on what transpired during the sitdown, only saying that he’d relayed the “conclusions” caucus members have shared with him in the aftermath of Biden’s disastrous debate perfomance
“That meeting occurred yesterday evening,” the letter said. “In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.”
“As House Democrats have done throughout this Congress, we will continue to work in the best interests of everyday Americans,” he added.
On Thursday, Biden conducted his first major press conference since the June 27 debate against former President Donald Trump that set off a panic in his party during the close of the NATO summit commemorating the alliance’s 75th anniversary.
The president spoke for almost two hours and took questions from numerous reporters on everything from the rise of China to allowing Ukraine to strike directly into Russia to the war between Israel and Hamas. But he also had some noteworthy gaffes such as calling his vice president former president Donald Trump. Earlier in the day he’d had a similar slip-up, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin.”
Numerous House Democrats, particularly Democrats from swing districts, have called on Biden to step aside. Representative Angie Craig from Minnesota became the first frontline Democrat to say that Biden should bow out of the race, with Representatives Pat Ryan of New York, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Erik Sorensen of Illinois and Hillary Scholten of Michigan following his lead shortly thereafter.
Since then, Representative Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, has said Biden should step aside. And after Biden’s press conference, Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut said that Biden should also step aside to allow for a winning ticket.
While Biden has faced a chilly reception in the Senate ever since his debate performance, only Senator Peter Welch of Vermont has said that Biden should call it quits.
The Jeffries-Biden meeting comes just ahead of the Republican National Committee, where Trump will announce his running mate and where the GOP will likely repeatedly hammer Biden and other Democrats for sticking by an unpopular incumbent.
