MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Biden is fighting off COVID and the growing number of calls for him to withdraw from the presidential race. Jon Tester of Montana has become the second Senate Democrat to go public with a call for Biden to step aside. California's Adam Schiff, who is running for the Senate, heads the list of 22 House Democrats who are also openly calling for the president to withdraw. We're wondering if the pressure campaign is having any impact on Biden as well as whether the uncertainty is affecting other Democrats. So we called Bakari Sellers. He's a political analyst, an author and a former Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Good morning, Bakari.
BAKARI SELLERS: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: Thanks for coming. So let me just start by asking, where are you right now on this question of whether Biden should stay or go?
SELLERS: Well, where I am is that the kind of circular firing squad, the political malpractice that we're seeing by Democrats right now is something that should - is untenable. And what we need to realize is that this is one person's decision, and that one person is Joe Biden. He has to make this decision alone. The public pressure that we're seeing - the public pressure campaign that we're seeing is not helpful, and I would go as far to say as Democrats have done more damage to Joe Biden since June 27, which was the day of the debate, than Joe Biden did to himself on the day of the debate.
MARTIN: So who's committing this malpractice? I mean, are you talking about the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, people who - I mean, they aren't - I don't know who's leaking these discussions around their sort of closed-door discussions, but they're not sort of disavowing them. I mean, so who's committing the malpractice?
SELLERS: Yeah. And I think that's my greatest disappointment because it's people I look up to. But nobody's elected Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. And so one of the things that your listeners need to understand is that what we're seeing is a play by leadership, is a play by donors to not just pressure Joe Biden out the race, but to pressure the entire ticket out the race, which includes Kamala Harris. And they're engaging in this kind of fan fiction of being able to fantasy football their way to a nominee, and that's just not the case.
I mean, if Joe Biden decides that he's not running for office, if he decides that he's not running for president of the United States - and let me just caution you, that's not happening this weekend, contrary to reports. And I can tell you why, if you want to know that. But the nominee would be Kamala Harris. She's best suited. She's best prepared. She can be enveloped in his record and choose a vice president to go out and challenge Donald Trump for the 47th president of the United States.
MARTIN: Well, you give us a little to think about here, but - so I do have a couple questions here, which is, don't these other people have a stake in the outcome, too? I mean, there is a lot riding on this. I mean, if you really - if these people genuinely believe that Joe Biden is not capable not just of not winning, but of not serving his term, don't they have some obligation to speak up?
SELLERS: I don't mind that. I think some of the conversations are healthy. However, you get to a point where these conversations are untenable. And that's - we're teetering on that stage now. I mean, you know, these conversations around, for example, the narrative that Joe Biden is dropping out this weekend, let's think this through just briefly. There is going to be nobody who drops out this weekend and fundamentally leaves the party without a nominee or a campaign for a month because you don't have the convention in Chicago for another 3 1/2 weeks, four weeks.
And so there are certain things that just simply don't make sense. And so these donors who are pressuring the Democratic Party, the, quote-unquote, "elected leadership" in various House or Senate seats, I wish we would have - take a beat. You know, Joe Biden doesn't respond to public pressure. We all know that. I wish we would take a beat, maybe have some private conversations and allow him to make the decision that, you know, either he stays or he's able to pass that torch.
MARTIN: Briefly, you think this pressure campaign is also directed at the vice president, at Kamala Harris. Why do you say that, as briefly as you can?
SELLERS: Yeah. I mean, the individuals, particularly the donor class, who are pushing out Joe Biden also want to effectually choose their own ticket. And, you know, I think what most people realize is that you're not going to skip over the first Black woman, a whole deposition. If Kamala Harris decides to do it, and you have a Mark Kelly, or a Josh Shapiro, or an Andy Beshear, or a Mark Cuban, or a General McRaven or whomever to run alongside her, that ticket will be just as formidable, if not more formidable, than Trump and Vance.
MARTIN: Well, you've given us a lot to think about. That is political analyst Bakari Sellers. Bakari, thank you.
SELLERS: Thank you. Have a blessed day. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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