Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a key architect of President Biden’s biggest legislative accomplishments, has sought to keep his caucus unified behind the embattled president, even as cracks have appeared.
Schumer has stayed in close contact with the White House and Senate colleagues since Biden’s disastrous debate in Atlanta.
He spoke with Biden on Wednesday and has talked to White House chief of staff Jeff Zients multiple times since the debate, not wavering in his support despite calls from some corners for the president to make way for another candidate.
Aides said Schumer is clearly trying to give time for Biden and his campaign to steady his campaign as the dam of support around him threatens to break.
“Schumer’s going to hold the line for leadership as long as he can. It’s hard to predict if the dam will fully break, but the dam is crumbling,” said a Senate Democratic aide.
A sign of that came Friday when The Washington Post reported that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), an influential centrist, is trying to pull together a group of Democrats to ask Biden to step aside.
“It tells what people’s real opinions are when you have the leader saying one thing” and a prominent Democratic committee chair going in a different direction, the Democratic aide said of Warner’s behind-the-scenes maneuvers.
The struggle for old Joe...
