Schumer warned Biden only five of 51 Senators wanted him to stay in the race after disastrous debate
In their inside account of the tumultuous election, titled simply 2024, Washington Post reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf write that the July 13, 2024 meeting between Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Biden was only put on the president's private schedule after the veteran New York senator, with whom Biden served in the upper chamber for a decade, threatened to go public with his request for a sit-down.
Schumer, who was then the Senate majority leader, traveled from Washington to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where Biden purchased a 4,786-square-foot beachfront home in 2017 after his term as vice president under Barack Obama had come to a close.
According to the authors, Biden's meeting with his former colleague Schumer followed a series of Zoom meetings with key Democratic groups, including a contentious session with the House's New Democrat Coalition that blew up when Biden attacked Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, a decorated Army veteran who'd read the president a note which stated that he and others were 'seeing overwhelming evidence in our districts that many voters are losing confidence' in Biden's ability to handle another four-year term.
Schumer reportedly heard the confrontation, during which Biden laid into Crow in personal terms, referencing his military service and demanding that the Coloradan find 'a world leader who's an ally of ours who doesn't think I'm the most effective president they've ever met' after the congressman questioned the sitting president's effectiveness.
Things didn't get much better for Biden when he joined Schumer, who reportedly told him that of the 51 Democratic senators then in office, perhaps only five would express support for him to remain in the race if there was a secret ballot to measure the caucus' enthusiasm for the president.
Biden was reportedly surprised by the statistic, at which point Schumer said: 'I know my caucus.'
Schumer also r told Biden that his own campaign's pollsters were not confident that he could defeat Trump for a second time, the book claims.
'I don't believe you are getting all the information,' he said. 'Or the information you are getting is inaccurate.'
The president asked Schumer for a week to make a decision, and as he left his home to attend Mass at nearby St. Edmund Catholic Church, he posed one more question to the Senate leader.
He asked: 'What do you think about Kamala? Do you think she could win?'
Schumer told Biden he didn't know if the vice president could defeat Trump, but he added that he was sure the president could not.
'If I were you, I wouldn't run, and I'm urging you not to run,' he said.
One week leader, Biden released a letter announcing that he was standing down from the presidential race, becoming the first incumbent president to do so since then-president Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek the Democratic presidential nomination amid the tumult of the Vietnam War in 1968.
He wrote: 'It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.'
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