Biden assails Democratic elites as he fights to remain in the race

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden reached the White House after two terms as vice president and nearly four decades in the Senate — an establishment résumé if there ever was one. But facing calls to abandon his re-election bid, Biden is now framing his fight for political survival as “party elites” versus the voters.

Biden’s current posture of defiance is rooted in his — and most of his inner circle’s — conviction that many of those calling for his ouster were never firmly behind him to begin with, according to multiple people familiar with their thinking. Biden made the point, angrily at times, in an 18-minute interview Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“I don’t care what those big names think,” Biden said after the hosts listed some prominent Democrats who’ve called for him to step aside. “They were wrong in 2020. They were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They were wrong in 2024.”

The uncertainty and fear about what happens if Biden appears on a ballot against Donald Trump is a large factor driving the nervousness in the party. Lawmakers, on a congressional recess since Biden’s shaky debate performance, returned to Washington on Monday, allowing face-to-face discussions about his viability and the potential contingencies if he were to step aside.

For now, Biden’s advisers argue his standing in the polls hasn’t shifted enough to justify the level of panic among elected officials and pundits or the coverage in the media about his debate performance. But Biden contended in a letter to Democratic lawmakers that the public hand-wringing is making a difficult situation even worse.

“Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” he wrote.

He called the anxiety among Democrats