Dems increasingly worry President Biden will spell doom for down-ballot races: ‘The s–t is going to hit the fan’

Democrats are growing increasingly nervous that President Biden’s campaign is sinking after his disastrous debate performance — and their hopes of retaining the Senate and retaking the House in November could sink along with it.

In key contests across the country, especially in the Senate, Democrats have generally been outperforming Biden in polls, teeing up a potentially stark contrast with the 2020 election when he generally outshined members of Congress and other contenders in his party.

“There are concerns with the impact on down-ballot races if the President doesn’t do well,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) admitted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

“At present, our down-ballot candidates in the Senate and House are doing well,” Schiff continued. “They are running well ahead of the President, but you can only run so far ahead of the President.”

Schiff said Sunday there’s only one reason that Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump — by six points nationally, according to polls taken after the debate: the president’s age — and the concerns about his fitness for office.

On Monday, the House of Representatives is set to reconvene and Democratic lawmakers will be peppered with questions from the press corps. Democrats were slated to huddle for a Zoom call Sunday afternoon ahead of the lower chamber gaveling back into session.

“The s—t is going to hit the fan on Monday when Congress returns,” one House Democrat told Axios. “People are scared about their own races. But they’re also worried about the country, and about democracy.”

This is particularly apparent in the Senate, where Democrats are facing a brutal map to retain their 51-49 edge. They essentially have to defend 23 seats, compared to Republicans’ 11.

At the moment, Trump is leading Biden in all seven key battleground states, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling.

However, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) is polling ahead of his Republican foe in Arizona, as is Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) in Nevada, Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D) in Pennsylvania, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) in Wisconsin, and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D) in Michigan, per the RCP aggregates.

Bob Casey repeatedly dismissed concerns that Joe Biden was unfit to be president — and even tried to spin his age as a strength.

Roll the tape. pic.twitter.com/tZdY4yFb2U

— Team McCormick (@TeamMcCormickPA) July 3, 2024

“It’s hard to see signs of Democratic weakness outside of the polling on Joe Biden. Whether it’s special election results, the midterms, or the polling of other Democrats, the problem appears to be somewhat contained to Biden,” Nate Cohen political analyst for “The Upshot” at The New York Times told The New Yorker.

Underpinning some of those polls are voters’ tendency to blame Biden for plights such as inflation and the border crisis while giving many congressional Democrats a pass.

Republican contenders have sought to weaponize Biden’s perceived political weakness against their rivals. Pennsylvania Republican Dave McCormick’s team, for example, rolled out a spot needling Casey on Biden’s age and vitality.

Already, at least five sitting House Democrats have implored Biden to pass the torch onto someone else amid elevated concerns about his age, vitality, and ability to win.

Even more are privately wishing for Biden to step aside.

“Candidates for House, Senate, governor, state legislature are going to be in survival mode,” a “well-known” Democrat told Axios. “They’re not going to go down with the ship. And the ship is in a bad place.”

In the Senate, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has endeavored to rally his colleagues to nudge Biden to step aside, the Washington Post reported. His spokesperson didn’t deny the report.

Biden, 81, has been adamant that he will stick it through unless the “Lord Almighty” intervenes, and brushed aside a question about why some Democrats are outperforming him in critical states.

“That’s not unusual in some states. I carried an awful lotta Democrats last time I ran in 2020. Look, I remember them tellin’ me the same thing in 2020. ‘I can’t win. The polls show I can’t win,’” Biden told ABC News in an interview last Friday, underscoring that he prevailed in the end.

The president was bullish that he could prove his naysayers wrong this time around.

“This isn’t just about the presidency, this is risking a sweep for the Republicans,” former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) told CNBC. “The donors stepping out makes a big difference for down-ballot races.”

Several big-name Democratic donors such as Abigail Disney have called on other financial backers to close off their wallets until Biden drops out.

Other deep-pocketed donors have mused about diverting their resources from the presidential contest to down-ballot races in order to help stem any potential hemorrhaging.

“I don’t think we can be polite and sugarcoat things. It will be brutal. Our base will not energized. We are already having issues with young people. We are already losing different minority groups,” former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) told CBS.

“If we continue down this road, we’re not going to have much of a turnout and you’re gonna hang people like Sherrod Brown [in Ohio], Jon Tester [in Montana], Bob Casey in Pennsylvania — you’re gonna hang them out to dry.”

Brown is polling ahead in the Buckeye State, which has turned red enough that it isn’t even considered a top battleground in the 2024 presidential contest, according to the RCP aggregate.

Meanwhile, polling has also pegged Trump as being competitive in Virginia, Minnesota, New Hampshire and elsewhere — states where Republicans previously stood little chance of winning nationally.

Trump is up in the RCP aggregate poll, despite the fact that Republicans haven’t won the popular vote in a presidential race since 2004.

“I don’t buy that,” Biden shot back when asked about the national popular vote polling showing him down.

But a lot of Democrats aren’t so quick to dismiss the polling, which generally had Biden up considerably against Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

Further catalyzing those fears are the stakes of the election for Democrats. Many Democrats have painted Trump as an existential threat to democracy and fear that he would be more emboldened during a second term in office.

Some have also pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity last week, in which the high court determined a president is shielded from criminal prosecution for official acts in office.

“What the Supreme Court did in that decision was give the next occupant of that office — whether it’s Joe Biden or anyone else — nearly dictatorial power” Schiff further fretted on Meet the Press.

Alan Clendenin, Florida’s longest-serving member on the Democratic National Committee said in a statement Sunday that, “The future of the Republic we know is in imminent danger and we must hold our country above our party or any one individual.

“I believe it is in the best interest of our country and the world that President Joe Biden step aside and allow Vice President Kamala Harris to carry forward his agenda as our Democratic nominee.”

Still, others, are wary that trying to re-top the ticket at this stage — less than five months out from the election, could only worsen matters.

Last week, in a fundraising blast that ripped into the “bedwetting brigade” of Democrats calling on Biden to move aside, Biden-Harris deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty amplified those concerns.

“If he were to drop out, it would lead to weeks of chaos, internal foodfighting, and a bunch of candidates who limp into a brutal floor fight at the convention, all while Donald Trump has time to speak to American voters uncontested,” Flaherty wrote.