Key quotes:

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is working furiously behind the scenes to put pressure on President Biden to reconsider his place at the top of the 2024 ticket, according to a number of Democratic lawmakers familiar with her efforts.

The Speaker emerita is talking to a broad swath of House Democrats — from front-liners in tough districts to hardened veterans with institutional clout — to pump the brakes on the notion that Biden should definitively be the party’s nominee heading into November, these lawmakers said.

Pelosi has not said Biden should exit the race, but the lawmakers said she harbors deep concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat former President Trump, and she’s fighting to prevent the party from rubber-stamping Biden’s candidacy before there’s a broader discussion about the potentially damaging consequences of that decision.

Note: This is a “breaking” story, as in, its been leaked and is just now showing up on multiple outlets.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      581·
      4 months ago

      Which is why, whatever happens, we’re voting Blue, and reminding everyone else who wants to not live (or die) under a fascist regime to do the same.

      But Biden’s advantages of a proven track record, incumbency, and massive name recognition, simply may not outweigh the damage anymore. The perception of his decline is severe, and there may be some truth to it - it’s certainly not a reputation he’s going to shed in the next five months.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
        26·
        4 months ago

        Democrats will vote for a blue pet rock. The point is to get someone that independents will vote for. And if both candidates are a bunch of old cooters that keep mixing up names, they’ll stay home or vote third party.

      • tomkatt@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        The perception of his decline is severe, and there may be some truth to it - it’s certainly not a reputation he’s going to shed in the next five months.

        Which even if true, is just absurdist considering his opponent can’t even finish a sentence without switching to a new topic and turning a statement into word salad. 2024 is freaking cursed.

    • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
      40·
      4 months ago

      Look, Biden should fuck off, but I’ll vote D no matter what, and there’s a lot of people who share my inclinations.

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
          3·
          4 months ago

          Lets just all agree that if you plan to vote blue no matter who then you’re not the target audience.

          If the Democrats want to generate enthusiasm for the election then all they have to do is start making promises that appeal to the undecideds.

          It’s easy, just send Israel’s arms shipments and financial support to Ukraine instead.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1810·
        4 months ago

        The Dem chance at a clean change from Biden to a younger option was last year, not 4 months prior, at least not with how the antiquated US election system works. Changing it now is fucking stupid, the table has been set. People are calling to flip the table because somehow they’re just now realizing that old people are old. This is what the Dem leadership has created, and regardless of their second guessing now it’s what we need to live with.

        Just another in a long running series of stupid decisions by Dem leadership over the last 30 years, always shooting themselves in the foot and assuming people will still vote for them. With middling success every time, yet never learning anything because the same old fucks are still running it all somehow.

          • Stovetop@lemmy.world
            35·
            4 months ago

            Enough time for what? There’s no way to put together another primary. So who in the Democratic party gets to play kingmaker?

            • NovaPrime@lemmy.ml
              13·
              4 months ago

              So who in the Democratic party gets to play kingmaker?

              The same party insiders who’ve played kingmaker during the last two primaries

            • criitz@reddthat.com
              62·
              4 months ago

              Idgaf. Let them pick a king and then I’ll vote for him so we don’t get Trump

              • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
                3·
                4 months ago

                If you’re going to vote blue regardless then your opinions on primary elections and the candidates can be safely ignored.

                The people you’re trying to reach will not vote blue no matter who. They need to be convinced, given enthusiasm rather than apathy and derision.

                • criitz@reddthat.com
                  2·
                  4 months ago

                  The people you’re trying to reach will not vote blue no matter who. They need to be convinced, given enthusiasm rather than apathy and derision.

                  I mean, exactly. The people who need reaching aren’t gonna vote for old man Biden, so swapping to literally anyone gives a better chance at beating Trump, and we don’t have the luxury of time. A random choice will have some chance to attract those voters Biden won’t.

            • pjwestin@lemmy.world
              32·
              4 months ago

              If you’re going to complain about the DNC playing kingmaker, I hope you’re equally outraged about Hillary’s campaign being given financial control of the party before the 2016 primary, or Obama convincing multiple candidates to drop out and give Biden enough room to beat Bernie in 2020, or the DNC making the South Carolina primary the first on the calendar to sure up support for Biden in 2024. If that doesn’t outrage you, you might consider the possibility that you don’t actually care that the Democrats pick kings, just that your preferred candidate might not be crowned.

    • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
      157·
      4 months ago

      It would be their own fault when it happens, The Biden we are seeing now is the Biden that they’ve known about for the last 4 years. Yet they still pushed him to run for reelection and sent their minions out to social media to claim anyone pointing out his problems are either Russian bots, paid by Putin, or Republicans.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldOP
    276·
    4 months ago

    Some more quotes:

    “I did have a conversation with her, she is very concerned,” said a House Democratic lawmaker who spoke anonymously to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s not like she’s like, ‘We’re sticking with this guy.'”

    A number of other lawmakers have had similar discussions.

    “I’ve had my own conversations with her,” a second Democrat said.

    “It’s just an obvious concern. The stakes are so high. We can’t afford to do anything but have our best possible opportunity to win,” the lawmaker said, relaying Pelosi’s message.

    Pelosi’s push for a deeper assessment of Biden’s candidacy, sources say, is rooted in concerns that the president’s campaign has responded to his disastrous June 27 debate performance with emotional appeals to staunch allies and a show of forceful defiance — but not an honest reckoning with underlying image problems or an objective analysis of the political fallout.

    “Team Biden made it clear what their strategy was: ignore the problem, run out the clock, and force the rest of us to live with it,” said Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who has publicly called on Biden to step aside. “I felt a certain urgency to upset that strategy.”

    Like…

    Wowza.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
      24·
      4 months ago

      This would be so much better if the Biden campaign didn’t act like they were in denial.

      If he’s so hell bent on being president… OK. But he needs to come out with Kamala Harris, and emphatically say “I’m old. I know it. And I’ll lean on my cabinet and my vice president, heavily, and do what we’ve been doing.” Not act like everything’s hunky dory when everyone knows it’s not.

      Act like Harris is an equal! Put her front and center! They can have their cake and eat it if he just puts his pride aside.

      • tomkatt@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        I have a feeling there may still be bad blood there considering Harris basically acted like she was the one elected president early in Biden’s first term, until he reminded her who was president and who was vice.

  • Doom@ttrpg.network
    73·
    4 months ago

    I don’t believe any of this I hear. I think Biden made it clear he is running

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldOP
      85·
      4 months ago

      BIdens opinion is rapidly becoming irrelevant. We don’t live in a dictatorship. Biden isn’t even winning a majority of Democratic voters right now.

      Democratic voters, 60% of them, want him to step down.

      • Doom@ttrpg.network
        31·
        4 months ago

        Okay but he said he is running I’m going to assume he is. Either way I’m voting the same way and see very little difference who the Dems throw up next.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
        11·
        4 months ago

        This will be like Humphries in 68.

        Remember how he won? Remember him at all? Don’t worry: Biden plays the Johnson role here, with Trump playing the Nixon.

        Binary choice. Biden, or every other option destroys the country. Good luck.