Playbook: “Biden’s posture is, essentially, a dare: Will lawmakers go public with the private concerns that have dominated text chains and phone conversations since last week’s debate? Or will they fall in line and unify behind a candidate they don’t think can win?”
“That question will be answered this coming week on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers return from recess Monday, when they’ll face a frantic press corps eager to pepper them with questions about what Biden should do.”
“After a week of texts and calls, they’ll be face to face and able to gauge for themselves whether the ‘vast majority’ of them — as Biden insisted yesterday — want the politically wounded president to stay. And if they determine otherwise, they will be in a better position to communicate, coalesce and formulate a plan to call for Biden to go.”
“This much is already clear: If the interview was meant to stop the bleeding, it hasn’t.”
Said one House Democrat, who called Biden’s interview “sad,” to MSNBC: “I’ll be breaking my silence soon.”
