The New York Times reports:

Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is running for Senate, warned during a private meeting with donors on Saturday that his party was likely to suffer overwhelming losses in November if President Biden remained at the top of the ticket, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Schiff’s remarks at the meeting.

If Mr. Biden remained, not only would he lose to former President Donald J. Trump, he could be enough of a drag on other Democratic candidates that the party would most likely lose the Senate and miss an opportunity to win control of the House, Mr. Schiff said at a fund-raiser in New York.

“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Mr. Schiff said during the meeting, according to a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.” [Continue reading…]

The New York Times also reports:

Recent interviews with more than three dozen people, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations about the campaign, reveal a truth about the state of Mr. Biden’s campaign: the people steering Mr. Biden through the biggest political crisis of his presidency are true believers in the mythology of Joe Biden as the comeback kid, and they discount opinions to the contrary.

The result is a historic standoff between Mr. Biden and his small inner circle on the one hand, and broad swaths of voters and elected Democrats fearful of an electoral wipeout in November on the other.

It’s a battle Mr. Biden has seemed to embrace in recent days. When asked on Monday night about who he consults on issues like remaining in the race or dropping out, the president offered a terse response: “Me.”

“Look, I’ve been doing this a long time,” he said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, adding, “My mental acuity’s been pretty damn good.”

Mr. Biden has expressed frustration to allies that people do not seem to accept that he is mentally cogent and fit to lead, according to a person familiar with his thinking. And he believes his polling should reflect what he sees as his accomplishments. [Continue reading…]

Politico reports:

President Joe Biden gave a forceful and defensive response to centrist Democrats who raised concerns about his reelection campaign in a Saturday meeting, and in one tense exchange dismissed one lawmaker’s concerns as “crap.”

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a respected centrist in the Democratic caucus, told Biden that people want a strong leader so they can feel safe on national security.

“I don’t want to hear that crap,” Biden said in response to Crow’s suggestion that voters did not have confidence in his national security credentials, raising his voice in a forceful defense of his foreign policy record, including the rebuilding of NATO, according to three people familiar with the remarks granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

But Crow spoke up again to say Biden’s accomplishments weren’t breaking through to voters. [Continue reading…]

Politico also reports:

Dozens of House Democrats are organizing a plan to speak out against their own party’s effort to seal President Joe Biden’s nomination sooner than originally planned, which they argue stifles the intense ongoing debate about his candidacy, according to a lawmaker involved in the effort.

A drafted letter, circulated by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and obtained by POLITICO, offers the first public signal from Democrats since the weekend’s attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump that scores of their own members remain deeply unsettled about the future of Biden’s candidacy.

“It’s a really bad move by the DNC. Somebody thinks it’s a clever way to lock down debate and I guess by dint of sheer force, achieve unity, but it doesn’t work that way,” Huffman said in an interview. He declined to confirm the existence of a letter. [Continue reading…]