Biden, Grasping to Stabilize Beleaguered Campaign, Lurches Left

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s latest gambit to stabilize his reelection bid has been a veer to the left, looking to bolster progressive support by floating ambitious new proposals to erase medical debt, cap rent increases and impose sweeping new restraints on the Supreme Court.

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The push is the latest in a furious, but possibly futile, effort to rally Democrats around his campaign after a disastrous debate performance fanned anxiety over his age and fitness and prompted calls for him to step aside.

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Over the past three weeks, Biden has sought to quell worries that he can’t operate in unscripted formats with a major press conference, alongside prime-time interviews with ABC News, NBC News and BET News. He’s called into MSNBC’s Morning Joe and a series of radio interviews, taped a segment with an emerging YouTube star in Detroit, held rallies and addressed major Black and Latino conferences.

His campaign has flooded Washington with memos: to lawmakers, insisting he’d remain in the race; to donors, promising a viable path remains; and to the media, arguing that the dynamics of the race haven’t changed.

Senior Democrats considered, then abandoned, a bid to formalize his nomination early, while some allies pointed to the assassination attempt on Republican rival Donald Trump to argue the party couldn’t afford the chaos of a ticket change. Biden himself held a series of calls and video teleconferences with skeptical members on Capitol Hill.

The bleeding hasn’t stopped. On Wednesday, Adam Schiff — the California congressman who became a household name during the Trump administration, and a current US Senate candidate — called on Biden to “pass the torch.”

But for a president convinced he remains able to mount a credible campaign to again defeat Trump, the support of an unlikely group of allies — progressive Democrats — has provided unlikely safe harbor in his storm.

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Yet those familiar with the thinking of progressive lawmakers describe the embrace as a strategic decision borne largely out of disbelief that the president, 81, would actually step down.

They also see Biden as someone who they have been able to effectively lobby on progressive policy goals, and who can provide legitimacy to ideas — like Supreme Court reform — that were seen as outside the mainstream just years ago. Biden’s support is seen as particularly impactful because he campaigned in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary as a moderate alternative to his left-leaning rivals, including senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

A senior Biden aide, who requested anonymity, disputed the notion the president has shifted his ideological positions, saying many of the ideas he’s put forward are ones he has embraced for years.

Progressives are also eager to avoid being viewed as troublemakers headed into what could be a difficult political cycle. Instead, it has been swing-district and red-state Democrats most vocal in pushing Biden to reconsider his place atop the ticket. That has drawn the ire of the president’s loyalists who argue they are only weakening his ability to pursue reelection.

There are strong ties between many progressives and some of the party’s veteran Black lawmakers, many of whom were early champions of Biden’s candidacy. Those bonds were cemented in part by his decision to choose Kamala Harris as his running mate and appoint Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

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‘Need Some Help’

The ability to stand behind the president may be something of a political luxury. Progressives tend to represent safe states and congressional districts, meaning they are less concerned over Biden’s drag in competitive House and Senate races.

Still, some of the lawmakers have been genuinely encouraged by the second-term plans Biden has put forward.

“Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate,” Sanders wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Saturday. “With an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.”

Biden used a Saturday call designed to shore up support with the Congressional Progressive Caucus to solicit their help in pushing through changes to the Supreme Court, which face an almost impossible path in Congress.

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“I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court,” Biden told them. “I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help.”

During a campaign rally in Detroit last Friday, Biden outlined other progressive priorities like new protections for organized labor, civil- and voting-rights legislation, a permanent child care tax cut, lower drug prices and expanding entitlement programs.

Many face long odds. Biden has said he plans to wipe out Americans’ medical debt for “pennies on the dollar” — a pledge that, like his effort on student loans, would face tough scrutiny in the courts.

Senior White House advisers Anita Dunn and Bruce Reed have been put in charge of developing a second-term agenda for Biden, according to people familiar with the matter.

The rent proposal comes as some polls have shown housing costs rank only second to inflation on lists of voter concerns.

Housing Fight

It’s uncertain that Biden’s moves will be enough to quell concerns within his party about his age — or win over voters.

At a Tuesday speech in Las Vegas announcing his proposal to cap rent increases by corporate landlords at 5% annually, Biden fumbled the line and said the limit would be $55. The president appeared to have difficulty reading the teleprompter, but the incident only fed concerns about his acuity.

On Tuesday, Biden was once again asked if he was determined to stay in the race during his interview with BET and said he would reevaluate whether to keep running if his health changed.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said.

Nor is the support for Biden universal. Progressive Caucus member Jared Huffman asked Biden during the Saturday call if he would be willing to step aside if party leaders urged him to do so. Huffman also helped promote a letter circulating on Capitol Hill denouncing an effort to move up the party’s virtual roll call on Biden’s nomination. Democrats said Wednesday they would not vote before August.

Other progressives remain frustrated by Biden’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas.

There have also been signs of slippage for Biden with other crucial groups, including some unions who have benefited from his policies.

The rent cap in particular has been criticized by economists, including some Democrats, and industry groups who say it will discourage new housing development by making it less profitable. That could work against Biden’s goal of building 2 million more housing units nationwide by expanding tax credits.

--With assistance from Christian Hall.

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