As of July 9, the Democratic Party is living in a state of suspended animation. Despite growing calls from many in his party to leave the contest, President Joe Biden has made clear he has no intention of dropping out. In a letter the president sent to congressional Democrats Monday morning, the president wrote that he was “firmly committed to staying in the race.” Later that morning, in a phone-in interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Biden took on an even more defiant tone, telling those who don’t want to see him as the party’s standard bearer to “challenge me at the convention.”
Insiders we spoke with over the weekend said they expected a “deluge” of Democratic congressional defections by Monday. As of Tuesday morning, those desertions have amounted to no more than a trickle. Even so, plenty of nervous down-ballot Democrats and donors are hoping that team Biden, confronted with worsening poll numbers and an aggressively antagonistic press corps, will see the writing on the wall and gracefully announce his exit from the contest. That possibility looks remote as of
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