Joe Biden to meet with progressive caucus as Kamala Harris holds rally in Philadelphia

Biden is expected to meet virtually with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Saturday afternoon, according to a person familiar with the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the private meeting. The president will join the group from his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he is spending the weekend before he departs for a trip to Texas and Nevada on Monday.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus remains split on supporting Biden, similar to the other factions. But Biden has a key group of support within the CPC: members of the progressive “Squad,” including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), who believe Democrats should rally around Biden to not lose sight of what they say is the threat of Trump.

One influential member of the CPC, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), strongly endorsed Biden’s reelection bid in an op-ed published online Saturday by the New York Times. Sanders urged his fellow liberals to “learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.”

Biden is also meeting virtually Saturday afternoon with members of the New Democrat Coalition, according to two people familiar with the plans. The group represents almost 100 House Democrats who range from the liberal and moderate wings of the caucus and are often most likely to work across the aisle in negotiations. The meeting is significant since most of the 21 House Democrats who have come out publicly against Biden are part of the group.

Biden met with the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday night and the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Friday to try to shore up support from key Democratic constituencies.

The president in recent days has tried to address concerns about his physical and mental fitness head-on.

During a stop to visit campaign organizers in a Detroit suburb on Friday, he told supporters, “I promise I’m okay.” He held a rare news conference on Thursday and took questions from reporters for an hour in an effort to prove he could handle unscripted settings. He demonstrated the depth of his foreign policy knowledge but had a few verbal stumbles.

But Biden was perhaps most impassioned during a campaign rally in Michigan on Friday, where he addressed a crowd of more than 2,000 energetic supporters who chanted “don’t you quit” and “we’ve got your back.” He delivered his most forceful defense yet of his candidacy there, where he charged that Trump was getting a “free pass” and unspooled a list of factors he said disqualified Trump from serving as president again.

Biden accused journalists and pundits of fixating on his verbal slip-ups while ignoring Trump’s criminal conviction and the accusations of sexual assault and rape against him.

“Mr. Trump raped her,” Biden, emphasizing the word “raped” as he read from a judge’s ruling in a case in which Trump was found civilly liable of defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of assaulting her years ago. “Many people understand the word ‘rape.’”

Democrats have feverishly debated whether Biden should stay in the presidential race — now less than four months away — as time quickly runs out to replace him with another candidate if he were to step aside. Concerns about Biden’s mental acuity and physical stamina were brought to the forefront after his June 27 debate performance, in which he struggled to complete thoughts and finish sentences.

The president met Thursday with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who told colleagues in a letter released Friday that he had met privately with Biden the previous night to discuss the election and convey the sentiments of his fellow Democratic lawmakers. Jeffries did not specify what he had told the president or how Biden had responded, but his letter notably did not urge Biden to stay in the race or say that House Democrats were behind his candidacy.

That has put Democrats in an especially perilous position. Many fear that Biden cannot beat Trump but have not publicly come forward, and time is quickly running out to put a new candidate, such as Harris, at the top of the ticket. Over the past week, Harris has made several public appearances before influential groups of Black women to mobilize behind the Biden-Harris ticket and leading various campaign rallies. But she has been deliberate in not mentioning the rising chorus of complaints against Biden’s efforts to stay in the race.

Democratic donors and strategists, alarmed by Biden’s recent stumbles, have already launched an advertising and public research effort to create what one group calls a “pro-Kamala surround-sound campaign” to improve public perceptions of the vice president.

Biden, for his part, has insisted at every turn he will not step aside. At the Detroit rally on Friday, he reiterated that Democratic primary voters had chosen him and complained that “elites” were trying to undo their will.

“You’ve probably noticed there’s been a lot of speculation lately: ‘What’s Joe Biden going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? He’s going to drop out,’” Biden said. “Here’s my answer: I am running, and we’re going to win.”

Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.