Republican convention could pump brakes on retirement pressure on Biden
By
Naomi Lim
July 14, 2024 7:00 am
.
As more elected Democrats call for President Joe Biden to step down as the party’s nominee, every public appearance he makes before next month’s Democratic National Convention will double as a political test, strategists warn.
But next week’s Republican National Convention, during which former President Donald Trump will announce his vice presidential nominee, could provide Biden with a respite from the pressure. Already, attention has turned from his political struggles following an apparent attempt to assassinate Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Democrats concerned about Biden’s chances against Trump this election have until Aug. 19 to convince him to stand aside as the presumptive nominee who controls almost all of the party’s delegates, with Biden’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday representing his next test and counterprogramming for first night of the Republican convention. That is potentially another month of Democrats criticizing their own candidate and helping Republicans cut ads before November, strategists say.
The fact that Trump and his campaign are “just sitting and laughing at all of this is infuriating,” according to one of those Democratic strategists, Jim Manley, a long-time aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Trump has underscored that Biden is his preferred rival this fall.
“What’s going is not sustainable — and the idea that every few days there is a new threshold that he is going to have to meet is ridiculous,” Manley told the Washington Examiner. “He met the low bar that was set last night, but what’s next? House and Senate Democratic leaders need to make a decision one way or another and act as quickly as possible.”
more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3079666/republican-convention-could-pump-brakes-on-retirement-pressure-on-biden/