President Joe Biden announced he was ending his re-election campaign, a week after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Delaware.
But the New York Democrat would not say whether he had privately called on the president to resign.
Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Schumer, 73, was joining a long list of Democrats pushing Biden to withdraw. However, he has not confirmed whether that was true and continued to insist so during an interview on Sunday.
CBS’s Face the Nation host Robert Costa pressed the senator, saying it was “important for history” to know whether he had had such conversations with the president.
“I won’t go into the details,” Schumer replied when asked for the second time whether he had told Biden, 81, it was time to step aside.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer remains mum on whether he secretly called on President Joe Biden to abandon his re-election bid
He continued: ‘President Biden will leave the presidency with his head held high because of all the great things he’s done, and because he put America first. He always has.’
About 40 Democratic lawmakers publicly called on Biden to drop out of running for a second term before he ended his candidacy last weekend, joining strategists and other lawmakers who said it was time to withdraw after his debate against Donald Trump in June.
Among them was key ally and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
Schumer initially dodged questions about whether he was among those who would oust Biden, instead discussing the president’s three and a half years in office.
“Senator, on July 13th, you went to Delaware to meet with President Biden. It was a private conversation, and I know you like to keep your conversations with the president private,” Costa said Sunday morning. “But that was, historically, a very important meeting in the sense that you were the Democratic leader of the Senate, the majority leader, meeting with the president to discuss the presidential race.”
“For the record, did you in any way suggest to the president that he withdraw from the presidential race on July 13?” Costa asked.
Schumer met Biden just eight days before the president withdrew from the race
Schumer dodged the question, saying, “Well, let’s first look at President Biden’s record. He’s had one of the most tremendous presidencies we’ve had in decades, and he’s done so many good things.”
“The infrastructure bill, the IRA bill, getting prescription drug prices down for the first time, successfully taking on the NRA, helping our veterans with burn pits,” he listed. “So he’s got an amazingly successful record and he’s always done what’s right for America and I respect him.”
“I respect his patriotism. I respect the great things we’ve worked on together, a lot of them,” Schumer concluded.