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Biden on the brink

House GOP sits on Biden impeachment report as Democrats implode

House Dems slide further into crisis over Biden mess

The Vault: Brown’s ‘open’ to crypto market structure reform

THE TOP

Biden on the brink

Happy Thursday morning.

There is no oxygen for any topic in Washington except for President Joe Biden’s political future.

House and Senate Democrats are being continually barraged with questions over whether the president should stay on the ballot, is fit to serve or can beat former President Donald Trump in November. The vast majority of Democrats we’ve spoken to would like him to step aside. And Democrats complain bitterly that the White House isn’t giving them any reason to be comfortable with Biden’s political standing.

Today will be another massive moment for Biden and his allies-turned-critics on the Hill.

First, a trio of the president’s closest confidants will have a lunchtime meeting with Senate Democrats at the DSCC. This meeting comes at the invitation of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has said precious little publicly about Biden’s disastrous debate performance and his plummeting political fortunes. More on that below.

Later, Biden will hold a 5:30 p.m. press conference as this week’s NATO summit comes to a close.

The Senate meeting: White House advisers Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon, along with Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, will walk into a roomful of Senate Democrats who are angry, nervous and downright dejected over Biden’s viability in an election that’s less than four months away.

Some Democratic senators questioned why the gathering would feature Biden’s advisers — who have come under fire from Democrats over their handling of the post-debate uproar — rather than Biden himself.

One of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats, Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), said he won’t be at the meeting because of “a conflict.” Tester said earlier this week that Biden “needs to prove to the American people, and me,” that he’s up for the job for another four years.

And Wednesday night, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) became the first Senate Democrat to openly call on Biden to step aside.

“For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race,” Welch wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) has said publicly that he doesn’t think Biden can win in November, but Welch’s comments are the first to cross the “Biden should withdraw” threshold.

A variety of Senate Democrats, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), have publicly questioned the president’s theory of the case in seeking another term.

The House Democratic Caucus, meanwhile, is in turmoil over Biden. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) joined the growing list of House Democrats who want to see Biden give up his reelection effort:

CNN’s Haley Talbot has a nifty spreadsheet detailing the Biden dissenters.

The NATO dynamics: The slow roll of public statements from Hill Democrats who are either calling on Biden to step aside or expressing grave concern about his ability to win has continued all week.

Democratic lawmakers and aides fear this trickle could turn into a flood once the NATO summit is over. Biden’s solo news conference afterward will be heavily scrutinized. Biden rarely gives news conferences anymore and usually does so with a visiting foreign leader, which is a different dynamic.

There’s also a sense among Hill Democrats that the end of the NATO gathering — which features Biden at every turn — will provide even more room to focus on the president’s own crisis. With the array of foreign leaders gone, rank-and-file lawmakers will feel free to tee off on Biden, party leaders fear.

The donor question: Biden’s problems inside the party extend well beyond Capitol Hill, of course.

Axios reported Wednesday night that Schumer “is privately signaling to donors that he’s open to a Democratic presidential ticket that isn’t led” by Biden, according to several sources.

Schumer issued a statement saying he still backs Biden. But we’ll note that Schumer didn’t deny the Axios story, either.

Here’s Schumer:

Several sources we talked to note that most major Democratic donors want Biden to step aside in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else, and Schumer basically hasn’t pushed back on that.

A longtime Democratic donor who has been on one of those calls within the last week noted that Schumer “was very careful to not say what he personally wants to see happen with Biden.”

The donor said Schumer made the point that their goal must be to defeat Trump at all costs. The donor added this could be interpreted as Schumer suggesting he’s comfortable with dumping Biden from the ticket if that means defeating Trump.

Also: The House will vote today on holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt for not turning over audio tapes of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview of Biden. Democrats tried to sideline the measure Wednesday but 10 of their members were absent.

— Andrew Desiderio, John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman

House GOP sits on Biden impeachment report as Democrats implode

New: Top House Republicans are privately wrestling with both the timing and content of a long-awaited report wrapping up their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, according to multiple lawmakers and GOP aides.

Part of the debate is whether to move forward on this issue in the midst of the raging Democratic battle over Biden’s viability in November. House GOP leaders have been counseling their members to stay on the sidelines this week and let the Democratic drama play out rather than giving Democrats — and the public — a reason to rally to Biden’s side.

Multiple GOP sources said Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) wanted to release the report as soon as this week, a move other senior Republicans opposed. They questioned the wisdom of that timeline, especially with the Republican convention around the corner.

Comer has been eager to move on from a flailing investigation that he’s been the face of for months. The Kentucky Republican has come up far short in proving some of the GOP’s most explosive allegations against the president. Comer, however, thinks there’s more than enough evidence both to impeach Biden and charge some of his family members — including Hunter and James Biden — with influence peddling and other crimes.

There’s also been extensive internal discussion about how far Republicans should go in formally calling for Biden’s impeachment, especially with Democrats fracturing over whether to keep Biden on their presidential ticket.

Most importantly, no Republican expects Biden’s impeachment to really happen anyway given the deep divisions inside the House GOP over the idea.

But the issue appears to have been resolved. After Comer initially pushed for language declaring Biden ought to be impeached “immediately,” Republicans involved in the process settled on language saying Biden committed “impeachable offenses,” according to sources familiar with the discussion.

Another reason for the holdup — with a trio of committees leading the investigation, all three have been providing input for the 400-page report, which we’re told has, at times, led to disagreements behind the scenes. An initial draft has been reviewed by the House’s counsel office, which suggested changes. GOP sources say the final product isn’t complete yet.

“You got three committees to work with,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told us this week. “We’re still working on it.”

“Just sit back and let the Democrats keep shooting each other,” added Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.). “That’s my advice. But we do need to release it at some point.”

In an interview, Comer acknowledged the back-and-forth between the panels, as well as the internal debate over when to release the report.

“[Biden] has committed impeachable offenses, there’s no question about,” Comer asserted.

The draft report hasn’t officially been given to Speaker Mike Johnson’s office or other members of the House GOP leadership, we’re told.

“House Republicans appreciate the diligent work of the committees and look forward to reviewing the findings when they are ready,” said a senior Republican leadership aide.

— Melanie Zanona and John Bresnahan

THE MINORITY

House Dems slide further into crisis over Biden mess

In the absence of any formal guidance from House Democratic leadership, the caucus’ at-risk incumbents are continuing to fret behind the scenes about the post-presidential debate political reality.

So far, only two Frontliners — Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Angie Craig (D-Minn.) — have publicly called on President Joe Biden to step aside in the presidential race. But in conversations with nearly a dozen vulnerable members Wednesday, almost all expressed concerns that Biden remaining on the ticket could sink their reelection bids.

DCCC-designated Frontliners met with leadership directly twice this week. In both meetings, there were fraught conversations where the vulnerable Democrats relayed serious concerns that Biden’s candidacy would tank their political futures.

There also was a widespread lack of confidence among these Democrats that Biden could turn the race around.

House Democratic leaders continue to listen to the dire warnings from their members without staking out a clear stance. Multiple Democrats we heard from urged their higher-ups to quickly come to a decision on the path forward. These members worry that the longer the confusion reigns, the worse it is for the party.

Many Democrats will be closely monitoring how Biden does during his solo press conference later today. A poor performance during the presser could open the floodgates for more Democrats to call for Biden to step down from the ticket.

A number of Frontliners are sticking by the president publicly, however.

Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) said she will support Biden as he “has made it clear that he will stay in the race for the presidency.” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) added he backs Biden and thinks he should stay on the ticket.

— Max Cohen, Mica Soellner and Melanie Zanona

The Vault: Brown’s ‘open’ to crypto market structure reform

News: Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in an interview Wednesday he was “open to working with” Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on an ambitious reform of crypto regulation.

There’s still a long way to go here. But Brown has spent the last several weeks trying to say as little as possible about crypto. This is a subtle shift, but an important one.

“I’m not automatically saying no,” Brown added. “I’m not going to let, through my committee, an industry-written bill. But I’m not automatically going to say no if consumers and investors are protected.”

The Ohio Democrat cautioned that he was waiting to “see the language” produced by the panel, of which he’s a member.

Brown’s interest is crucial for this reform effort in the long term. The market structure bill passed by the House in May makes significant alterations to the authority of both the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Future Trading Commission.

Stabenow has made clear her bill text is going to focus on crypto commodities. “We’re not defining securities, because that’s not in our jurisdiction,” the Michigan Democrat told us Wednesday. The Agriculture Committee chair said during a hearing earlier in the day she hoped to distribute “specific language” to senators by the end of the week.

Brown has warned for months he won’t entertain any crypto bill that’s too friendly toward industry. That puts him a bit at odds with Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the top Republican on the Agriculture Committee.

Boozman said he was looking for “broad support within the community we wish to regulate” and didn’t believe lawmakers had achieved that yet.

Meanwhile in IRS news: The IRS’ crackdown on wealthy tax cheats is in full swing: the agency is announcing this morning that it’s raked in $1 billion in taxes owed by rich people.

The haul is from a campaign focused on taxpayers with income over $1 million and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. The IRS launched the effort with new Inflation Reduction Act money. Of course, that $60 billion in extra funding from the IRA will be a top target if Republicans win big in the November election.

In the meantime, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are continuing to tout how the funding is helping to crack down on tax cheating. Werfel has made it his mission to prove that the IRS’ extra funding should stay in place.

“This is yet another example of where the Inflation Reduction Act is making a difference,” Werfel said on a call with reporters.

International tax meeting: Members of the House GOP “tax team” focused on global competitiveness met with business leaders Wednesday to talk about international tax provisions from the 2017 Trump tax cut law, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

The law changed how multinational companies pay taxes on overseas profits. The discussion included feedback on what lawmakers could improve on when much of the law expires next year. And the Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax came up as a piece that business leaders believe may not be working as intended.

– Brendan Pedersen and Laura Weiss

CAMPAIGN

Exclusive: The NRCC is rolling out a new digital ad campaign today targeting 10 House Democrats in swing districts who have privately met with President Joe Biden or visited the White House over the past year, according to White House visitor logs. This is just the latest example of how Republicans are looking to capitalize on the current crisis engulfing the Democratic Party.

The ads accuse the Democratic lawmakers of witnessing “Biden’s mental failures up close” and engaging in a cover-up, which the ads refer to as “the scandal of the century.” The 10 Democrats being targeted are Reps. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Jahana Hayes (Conn.), Eric Sorensen (Ill.), Don Davis (N.C.), Gabe Vasquez (N.M.), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Susan Wild (Pa.), Jared Golden (Maine) and Yadira Caraveo (Colo.).

Here’s one of the ads.

Fundraising news: California GOP Rep. Michelle Steel raised nearly $1.1 million in Q2 and ended the quarter with $3.8 million on hand. Steel, one of the House’s best fundraisers in competitive districts, is facing off against Democrat Derek Tran this November in California’s 45th District.

Democrat Monica Tranel raised $1.15 million in the second quarter. Tranel is mounting a rematch against GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke in Montana’s 1st District.

— Melanie Zanona and Max Cohen

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