US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks to press at the White House after a meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on funding the government and avoiding a shutdown in Washington D.C., United States on February 27, 2024.
Celal Gunes | Anadolu | Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with President Joe Biden to share opinions from the Democratic caucus about “the path forward” — an apparent reference to Biden’s status as the party’s presidential nominee — Jeffries revealed Friday.
The Thursday night meeting between the New York congressman and Biden came soon after a rare news conference by the president — who at that event insisted he would remain in the race against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
Jeffries earlier Thursday had said he intended to poll every member of the Democratic caucus about their feelings on keeping Biden as the party’s nominee.
On Friday, Biden was participating in a call with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and is expected to make more calls to lawmakers on Capitol Hill later in the day, according to NBC News.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democratic and Hispanic Caucus member, was among the first lawmakers to publicly call on Biden to drop out of the 2024 contest.
Biden also plans to speak to members of the New Democratic Coalition, a group of more moderate House members, on Saturday afternoon.
In a letter Friday to his caucus, Jeffries said that in his meeting with Biden he “expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.”
As of Friday afternoon, 19 House Democrats and one Democratic senator have publicly called for Biden to drop out of the race, allowing another party member to take his place as the nominee. There are 213 Democrats in the House, and 47 Democrats in the Senate.
Biden did not arrive back at the White House from the NATO summit where he gave his news conference until just before 9 p.m. ET Thursday, which means his meeting with Jeffries likely did not begin until that same night. The timeline underscores the urgency that House Democrats view the political situation.
Asked about the meeting Friday morning on MSNBC, Biden campaign aide Quentin Fulks said, “The president and leader had a very good conversation, a substantive conversation, as the president has been having with members on the Hill, and governors and mayors and elected officials across this country for the past week.”
Fulks did not elaborate, but added, “I know that it was important for the president to connect with leader Jeffries and so I’ll just have to leave that at that.”
Jeffries in his letter wrote: “Over the past several days, House Democrats have engaged in a thoughtful and extensive discussion about the future of our country, during a time when freedom, democracy and the economic well-being of everyday Americans are on the line. Our discourse has been candid, clear-eyed and comprehensive.”
“On behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, I requested and was graciously granted a private meeting with President Joe Biden,” Jeffries wrote. “In my conversation with President Biden, I directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.
“As House Democrats have done throughout this Congress, we will continue to work in the best interests of everyday Americans,” the leader wrote. “Thank you for your continued leadership in service of the communities we are privileged to represent.”
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