Biden’s stumbles have Schumer and Jeffries walking a tight rope over Democrats split on party’s future

More than 15 years ago, the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid defiantly said, “I don’t work for Barack Obama. I work with him.” Blunt as that may be, Reid explained something few people understand about politics: Even if members of Congress share a party with the president, they are not his employees. They are his partners, and sometimes, their interests may diverge.

Now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are living that lesson, as President Joe Biden faces mounting calls from congressional Democrats to step aside in favor of a potentially more viable candidate in the 2024 election. For his part, Biden indicated yet again on Monday that he has no plans to go quietly, urging his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill to get with the program in a forceful letter.

In short, Biden insisted he’s “running this race to the end, and beating Donald Trump.” This, of course, comes after Biden’s abysmal performance in the first presidential debate against Trump last month, which sent Democrats into a full panic.

At least 11 House Democrats have now called on Biden to step aside, including Minnesota Representative Angie Craig, who told The Independent immediately after the debate that she was “still processing what happened.” By the weekend, she had processed enough and said Biden needed to call it quits.

Craig’s announcement hits different than some of the others, as she’s the first Democrat from a battleground district to make the call. In 2018, she beat an incumbent Republican who represented a district in the suburbs of the Twin Cities that had voted for Hillary Clinton. Last year, during the final vote that made Mike Johnson speaker of the House, she said “happy anniversary to my