President Joe Biden’s troubles continued to unfold Thursday as Democrats on Capitol Hill expressed concern over Biden’s age and cognitive state, deliberating over whether or not to back his reelection campaign ever since he faced former President Donald Trump in a widely-watched televised debate late last month.

The Whole World Is Watching

On Thursday, Biden attended a NATO summit and hosted a solo press conference afterwards, an event expected to test his endurance and mental acuity. At the NATO summit, Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin,” confusing the name with that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. During his subsequent press conference, he referred to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as “Vice President Trump.” As in previous press conferences, Biden announced at the end of his prepared remarks that he had “been given a list of people to call on…”

Unsurprisingly, Biden fielded questions from the White House press corps regarding his age, stamina, and cognitive state. One reporter questioned the president on reports that he ends his day and goes to bed by 8 p.m. “Look, what I said was, instead of my every day starting at seven and going to bed at midnight, it’d be smarter for me to pace myself a little more,” Biden responded. “And I said, for example … instead of starting a fundraiser at nine o’clock, start at eight o’clock. People get to go home by 10 o’clock. That’s what I’m talking about.”

“I just got to just pace myself a little more,” he insisted. “Pace myself and the next debate, I’m not going to be traveling in 15 time zones a week before.”

While Democrats have been struggling to reach a “general consensus” on whether to rally behind Biden or ask him to retire his campaign, Thursday night’s press conference performance may have bought the president more time before prominent Party members make a decision. According to Fox News’s senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, one Democratic Party source called the press conference the “[w]orst possible outcome” because “it prolongs him stepping down” and halting his campaign. “Overall he sounded coherent but calling Z — President Putin and Harris — VP Trump overshadows the rest of his time,” another Democrat told Politico.

Biden’s own former press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on MSNBC News that Biden’s press conference performance “gave them more time, which for the campaign, is a win.” She added, “This purgatory and this in-between is a real challenge, and the uncertainty is what’s a challenge for down-ballot candidates.”

A Coup D’democrat?

A number of those down-ballot candidates have begun calling on Biden not to continue running for reelection. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) issued a statement Thursday calling on Biden to drop out of the race for the White House and “pass the torch to a new generation of leaders.” After praising Biden’s political career thus far, Stanton wrote, “The Democratic Party must have a nominee who can effectively make the case against Trump, and have the confidence of the American people to handle the rigors of the hardest job on the planet for the next four years.” He concluded, “For the sake of American democracy, and to continue to make progress on our shared priorities, I believe it is time for the President to step aside as our nominee.”

Ranking House Intelligence Committee member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) called on Biden to stop campaigning and drop out of the race during the president’s NATO appearance. “The 2024 election will define the future of American democracy, and we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s MAGA authoritarianism,” the Connecticut Democrat wrote in a statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden, and I hope that … he will continue to put our nation first and, as he promised, make way for a new generation of leaders.”

“I circulate amongst my colleagues and I would tell you that there is a very small percentage of my colleagues who are ride or die, who say this is the only way to go,” Himes told CNN of Capitol Hill support for Biden, shortly after issuing his statement. He added, “I actually think plan B looks pretty good. I don’t know what it looks like, but I think we have a remarkable bench of Democrats…” Himes continued, “This needs to be resolved — I don’t know, in the next five to seven days — because we just went 10 days where the story was not Donald Trump promising totalitarianism, it was, ‘How is Joe Biden going to do in the big boy press conference?’”

“All I can do is look at the numbers right now. No president has ever won with a 37% approval rating. … You can look at lots of different polls, [and] the president isn’t really up in any of them,” Himes observed. “Imagine that three months from now, we get another performance like there was in the debate — right before the election. Do you want to take that risk? I don’t.”

Representatives Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Eric Sorenson (D-Ill.), and Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) have all expressed concerns over Biden’s impact on House and Senate races and called for the president to drop out. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey found that a majority (56%) of Democratic voters agree and want Biden to drop out over concerns about his age and mental acuity.

A pair of bombshell reports also claim that “dozens” of congressional Democrats are currently drafting statements demanding that Biden give up the fight. According to CBS News, legislators are planning to issue statements “over the next 48 hours.” Citing four anonymous Democratic sources, CBS News wrote, “The planning is coordinated, and some of the statements are pre-written, according to two sources. And it’s not clear that anything Mr. Biden said in his high-stakes press conference Thursday night could redirect the expected course of events.” One source predicted the release of the statements would be “brutal.”

The report continued, “Congressional leaders aren’t expected to publicly speak out themselves or to attempt a forced replacement of Mr. Biden, aiming to avoid a public break with the president out of respect. But there is also a recognition … that public calls from leadership would trigger stubborn opposition from the president.”

Politico reported that Democrats “are making contingency plans in case Joe Biden tanks his highly anticipated solo press conference” following the NATO summit. The report claims that “at least a half-dozen lawmakers [are] preparing to go public against the president, according to six people familiar with discussions. Three of those lawmakers’ offices have already drafted statements, according to two people who have been briefed on conversations.” A purported “large faction” of Democrats who have remained silent on Biden’s candidacy since the debate are expected to turn on him. A majority of Capitol Hill Democrats “are privately skeptical that there’s any number of Democratic defections that would actually convince Biden to leave the ticket, calling it ‘delusional’ thinking,” the report claims. “Others insist that a large-enough groundswell could make a difference, pointing to party leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who could relay concerns to Biden himself.”

In fact, Pelosi is reportedly orchestrating a quiet rebellion against Biden in the House. Earlier this week, Pelosi said in an interview that it’s up to Biden whether or not he wants to continue running. “Those comments were meant to serve as a subtle green light, one person close with Pelosi said, meant to encourage members to speak up about their desire to see change atop the ticket — and to warn Biden to reconsider staying in the race,” Politico reported. The former speaker has reportedly told fellow legislators in private conversations “that Biden won’t win this November and should step aside, according to a half-dozen lawmakers and others who have either spoken with her or are familiar with conversations she has had.”

“Pelosi has advised those members, however, to wait until this week’s NATO Summit is finished out of respect for Biden and national security writ large. Some members, we’re told, have already started drafting statements of what they want to say, ready to drop once foreign leaders leave town,” Politico continued. Pelosi has reportedly told House members in vulnerable districts to “do whatever they have to do to secure their own reelections,” including calling on Biden to step aside. Those in more secure districts have been instructed to go directly to the White House or Biden’s campaign “so as to minimize public fighting,” but the majority have allegedly been rebuffed before reaching the president.

Politico’s report was largely corroborated by another from The Hill. “Pelosi speaks for the sense that, if you’re going to circle the wagons, you need a lot more wagons in the circle,” one anonymous Democratic legislator said. Another said, “It’s very clear that she doesn’t think that this matter is settled. And that Joe Biden’s statement — ‘I’m running; shut up’ — she said, ‘No, we’re still talking about this.”

An Axios report further claimed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is “open to dumping Biden” from the ticket in November. The top Senate Democrat has reportedly shared his views with both his congressional colleagues and major Democratic donors. Schumer reportedly told allies prior to the now-infamous June 27 debate that the early date would either give Biden time to recover from a poor performance or give the Party a chance to coalesce around a new White House contender.

What’s Next?

According to The New York Times, Biden’s top advisers are struggling to convince the president “to make what they see as the painful but inevitable decision to abandon his campaign for re-election…” Advisers are reportedly planning to tell Biden that he cannot beat Trump in November, that another candidate would be better poised for victory, and that the Democratic Party would not “devolve into chaos” in the process of selecting that candidate.

But such a candidate may have already been selected. The Biden campaign has reportedly commissioned a poll testing Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. “It could be read as the team gathering information to present a case to the president that his path forward is slim, or to argue that Mr. Biden is still the strongest standard-bearer for his party,” the Times noted. Biden campaign chairwoman Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, however, warned, “Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.”

Despite her unpopularity (an Emerson College survey on Tuesday showed that Trump’s lead over the VP is twice as large as his lead over Biden), campaign staffers, congressional Democrats, and commentators have suggested that Harris would be the obvious choice to inherit Biden’s campaign war chest should he step aside. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) pledged on Wednesday not to challenge Harris if she were chosen to replace Biden, although he added that he doesn’t “expect it’s going to come to that.” Pollster and statistician Nate Silver described Harris as “mediocre at best” and predicted that she would lose if she went up against Trump.