The attempted assassination of Trump has bought Biden time, obscuring an increasing number of calls from Democrats for the president to leave the race.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had just completed a quasi-clandestine meeting with President Biden at Rehoboth Beach, Del., late Saturday afternoon.
An alarming number of House and Senate Democrats were growing increasingly uneasy with Mr. Biden as the prospective Democratic standard-bearer this fall. No one knew that Schumer made the pilgrimage to Rehoboth to huddle with the president – and have a frank conversation about what Democratic senators felt about him staying in the race. The number of Democrats who wanted him out likely increased after Biden lieutenants met with Democratic senators on Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon.
Schumer’s meeting with President Biden wasn’t entirely a surprise. After all, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., met with the president on Thursday night. Both men served as emissaries from their respective caucuses, carrying messages of concern from rank-and-file members about Mr. Biden forging ahead with his campaign.
The announcement that Schumer huddled with the president hit reporter in-boxes at 6:05 pm ET Saturday.
The message offered no details or specifics. But it didn’t need to. Just the fact that Schumer made a sojourn to communicate those messages from fellow Democrats to the President of the United States spoke volumes.
“I sat with President Biden this afternoon in Delaware; we had a good meeting”, read a statement from Schumer.
Such news would have rattled the political landscape.
But not on this Saturday night.
A gunman nearly assassinated former President Trump at 6:11 pm et, just five minutes after the Schumer statement.
Any conversation about President Biden and schisms inside the Democratic Party would wait.
The shooting bought Mr. Biden more time. Keep in mind that the debate where the president’s performance so rattled Democrats came on June 27. The shooting allowed President Biden to continue to hold the ball and drain the clock.
The political world was agog Saturday, watching to see if more Democrats would demand President Biden step aside.
