A group of more than three dozen Democratic lawmakers have formed a cabal through a secret text message group in which not one of them is supportive of President Joe Biden following his disastrous debate performance, a new report says.
In the week since Biden, 81, rambled his way through his showdown with Donald Trump, the aging president has been seeking support from prominent Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsome and Democratic governors.
However, a new report from NBC News says that 40 Democratic lawmakers have gotten together through a text message group to all declare that they do not support Joe Biden’s candidacy in November.
A Biden spokesperson did not deny the existence of the group to the network but instead pointed to the liberals who have declared support for the embattled Scranton native.
So far, only Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, have come out public to ask for Biden to step aside before the election in November.
The NBC report mentions some unnamed Democrats who ‘doubt [Biden’s] capacity to hold office.’ Some have seen Biden go through ‘memory lapses, incoherence’ as well as witnessing a ‘vacant look.’
‘The country saw [at the debate] what those of us who have had personal interactions with him have all known for the last 2½ years,’ a Democratic senator said.
Another Democrat, named only as a ‘lawmaker,’ is quoted as saying that Biden has been ‘exceedingly tired’ in recent months and that his performance when facing off against Trump was ‘not an aberration.’
This latest report comes on the back of a shocking expose from investigative journalist Olivia Nuzzi who said that senior Democrats are wondering how Biden is allowed to continue to run.
Nuzzi said she had heard questions being posed by high-ranking Democrats on the east and west coasts about whether Biden is a puppet whose strings are being pulled by another group of secretive Democrats.
She highlighted the irony that this is the same theory espoused by many on the MAGA right, with Donald Trump himself previously alleging that former President Barack Obama is the real power behind the Biden White House.
Explaining the strange convergence in beliefs between Biden and Trump supporters, Nuzzi said: ‘Nothing else made sense. They were in full agreement.’
This theory that a cabal was controlling Biden parallels a similar idea pushed by Trump that Barack Obama is actually calling the shots
At a New Hampshire event earlier this week, the former president said: ‘It‘s never been worse than it is now under crooked Joe Biden, and frankly, his boss, Barack Hussein Obama. I think it’s his boss.’
There’s no evidence to suggest Obama is effectively serving a secret third term as president.
But the fact that such theories are now being openly-discussed in liberal circles and amplified by a left-leaning magazine highlights just how much panic has erupted over Biden’s fitness to govern.
And with Nuzzi revealing that top-flight Democrats are among those concerned, Biden is only likely to face more pressure to quit.
Biden faces other pressures in the shape of prominent liberal donors such as Abigail Disney granddaughter to Roy Disney, the co-founder of the Walt Disney Corporation.
‘I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,’ she said in a statement.
The 64-year-old Disney’s heiress’ announcement comes just a day after Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings became one of the first liberal megadonors to turn off the spigot until the president stands aside.
‘If Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire,’ she continued.
Biden met for more than hour at the White House on Wednesday night, in person and virtually, with more than 20 Democratic governors who afterward described the conversation as ‘candid’ but said they were standing behind Biden despite being concerned about a Trump victory in November.
‘The president is our nominee. The president is our party leader,’ said Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland. He added that, in the meeting, Biden ‘was very clear that he’s in this to win.’