LEESBURG, Va — House Democrats at their annual issues conference batted away political liabilities facing their party and President Biden.
Throughout the two-day retreat at a resort, they fended off questions about Mr. Biden’s poor poll numbers and defended his mental fitness after special counsel Robert Hur’s report cited the president’s diminished memory as a reason not to prosecute him for mishandling government secrets.
“Speaker Johnson must resign. I’m worried about his memory. How can he lead the Congress?” Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said on social media.
Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey said on X: “This is another reminder that the head of the Republican party has been arrested for 91 felonies including espionage, stealing nuclear secrets, and trying to overthrow democracy.”
He added that Mr Trump “recently said Nikki Haley was Nancy Pelosi. cc the media.”
At the Lansdowne Resort, the House Democrats tried to craft a legislative agenda for the presidential election year. But the top of the ticket and Democrats, in general, are drowning in historically low poll numbers, including among usually reliable minority voters.
SEE ALSO: Biden pushes back against Hur report: ‘I know what the hell I’m doing’
The party’s strong support is declining heavily with Black and Hispanic voters. Although Democrats win a majority of African Americans, that lead has dwindled by 20 percentage points in the last three years, according to a Gallup poll.
Hispanic voters identifying as Democrats show a similar trend, hitting a new low in 2023.
Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a key Biden ally, said Mr. Biden wasn’t struggling with Black voters and pointed to the president’s easy win Tuesday in South Carolina’s Democratic primary.
“When I talk to those young people, they are all in for Joe Biden. I keep hearing that he’s lost the youth vote. I keep hearing he’s lost the Black vote, [but ]South Carolina increased black participation in that primary by 30%,” he said.
The Democrats’ policy retreat included panels and lunches focused on issues such as abortion rights, artificial intelligence, the economy and affordable housing.
They said Americans are still upset about the Supreme Court in 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade abortion rights, which led to more abortion restrictions in some states.
“We’re going to tell the stories of women who have lost limbs from sepsis, being denied care, women having to travel six, eight hours in an ambulance to another state to get the care they needed,” Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts said.
“We cannot have two systems of health care in this country and move forward. And if the GOP wants to talk about the border, they have revealed their hand. They have asked that we address the border so that we can’t do our other pressing national security needs.”
Even before the special counsel’s report was released on Thursday, Democrats were forced to defend his mental faculties because of his sting of recent brain-fog incidents, including referencing conversations with world leaders who were dead at the time.
“The president is very well suited to be our commander-in-chief and we’re going to continue to focus on the issues that the American people are focused on,” said Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada.