Top Democrat admits party in ‘serious’ talks about Biden dropping nomination for ‘someone else’

One of the president’s most influential allies in the House, Jamie Raskin, was the first elected Democrat to admit on a recorded newscast this weekend that his party is in “serious conversations” about whether Joe Biden will continue as the Democratic nominee.

Raskin spoke to MSNBC’s Al Velshie in an interview and explained that the party will be unified in the fall — whether it’s behind Biden or another candidate he believes the party could potentially choose sooner. Democrats are looking forward to Thursday’s debate between Biden and Donald Trump, punctuated by moments when the president seemed confused or lost track of his arguments.

“Obviously there was a big problem with Joe Biden’s performance in the debate. Moreover, there is a huge amount of affection and love for Joe Biden in our party. “That makes it a difficult situation for everyone, but they are very sincere and serious, rigorous, and the conversations are happening at every level of our party,” Raskin said.

“I can say one thing: no matter what President Biden decides, our party will be united… And whether he is the candidate or someone else is the candidate, he will be the keynote speaker at our convention, he will be the figure around whom we will unite to move forward and defeat the forces of authoritarianism and reaction in the country,” he continued.

The Maryland congressman is the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, one of the most influential committees in the lower chamber.

Polls now show the incumbent ahead of his 2020 opponent, Donald Trump, in several key battleground states. He maintains a fundraising lead over Trump, but it has yet to bear fruit on the ground. The president’s campaign says there has been another surge in fundraising in their favor since the debate — the campaign said it had raised more than $33 million as of Sunday.

“It’s a familiar story: After Thursday’s debate, the Beltway class is out for Joe Biden. But the data from the battleground tells a different story,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dixon added in a note to supporters this weekend.

“Our team knows a thing or two about putting our heads down and working hard to win tough races,” she continued. “It will be a very tight election. It was always meant to be this way… This is exactly what we planned in our campaign.

Biden’s debate performance, like many of his public appearances in recent years, was choppy and at times triggered painful reactions when the president seemed unable to finish his thoughts – the cold that manifested itself in his hoarse voice also did him no favors.

The president met with members of his family at Camp David on Sunday as reaction to the debate continued to pour in on social media in the form of cable news hits, polling samples and angry tweets from left-wing pundits and commentators. The trip was planned before the debate, and Biden aides pushed back on the suggestion that it was a moment when the Biden family was considering difficult decisions about the future.

Democrats are expected to nominate the incumbent president to run again at the nominating convention in August. The party held a primary election earlier this year, but no prominent members sought the nomination and no debates were held with those who ran. As a result, Biden won with an overwhelming majority of delegates whose votes will determine the nomination at the convention.

He is reportedly still determined to continue running for president and participate in a second debate this September. Meanwhile, Democrats who did not vote have worried to reporters that this makes it even harder to run for president.