The public calls from Democrats asking President Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race have quieted in recent days, but private efforts to nudge the president and his top aides continue, several Democratic sources told CNN.
Among the efforts, these sources say, are repeated memos from a seasoned and respected Democratic pollster, Stanley Greenberg, sharing his take that Biden is on track to lose the election – and in a way that does deep damage to other Democratic candidates.
“Lose everything,” is how one Democrat described a polling memo Greenberg sent to Biden’s inner circle in recent days. “Devastating,” was the one word answer of a second Democrat close to the White House who is familiar with the Greenberg memos.
These sources said Greenberg has sent several memos over the past two weeks since the president’s devastating debate performance, analyzing internal polling he asserts shows the president’s position continues to deteriorate because Americans overwhelmingly do not see him as up to serving four more years.
Greenberg has been a leading Democratic pollster for decades and his work includes advising Bill Clinton’s two winning presidential campaigns. He declined to comment when contacted Monday evening.
Several Democratic members of Congress also have continued to lobby privately, these sources said, urging top Biden advisers to consider the damage to Biden’s legacy if the president not only loses the White House but Republicans hold the House and capture the Senate majority.
One Democratic lawmaker told CNN some top Biden aides get “the depth of this” but believe it can be turned around and in any event describe the president as adamant in the belief he can win. In his NBC News interview Monday, for example, the president again made clear he has no intention of stepping aside.
The lawmaker’s view was that it was counterproductive to make additional public calls for Biden to step aside right now, because of the imperative of a unified party response to this week’s Republican convention and because of the president’s repeated public statements about staying in the race.
But this Democrat predicted that approach would change if the polling and other data after the GOP convention showed the president’s standing deteriorating more.
