With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz

What up, Recast family! President Biden welcomes NATO leaders to Washington today. And later this week he travels to Michigan to shore up voters in the critical battleground state. First we focus on the president leaning on Democratic officials of color to bolster his embattled candidacy. 

President Joe Biden remains defiant about his election prospects even as the whisper campaign for a graceful exit appears to be picking up steam.

Officially, there are nine Democratic House members on record calling for Biden to step aside. But reading the tea leaves, there are likely several more lurking, ready to join them at any sign the president appears unable to carry on as the nominee.

In recent days, he’s leaned into a series of maneuvers — the sitdown interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, campaign stops in Madison, Wisconsin, pressing the flesh in Philadelphia, phoning into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” — designed to turn the page from his tumultuous debate performance and calm jittery Democrats worried he can’t go the distance.

He even penned a forceful, two-page letter to congressional Democrats, in which he insisted, “The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end.”

It hasn’t. And it won’t.

Still, the dam appears to be holding… for now.

And Biden has one very influential group to thank for that: Black electeds on the Hill.

The president, who spent 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate before serving as the vice president to the nation’s first Black commander in chief, knows the value of relationships and coalitions. And on Monday evening he huddled with his strongest bloc of support on Capitol Hill: the Congressional Black Caucus.

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As my POLITICO colleague Nicholas Wu and I reported last night, there were no fireworks on the call. The president thanked the caucus for having his back — and gave them a verbal commitment that he will continue to have theirs.

The call came hours after current CBC Chair Steven Horsford reiterated his support for the president and vice president, declaring: “Like me, they don’t want to see Donald Trump back in the White House and are ready to work and VOTE to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

It’s important to remember the CBC has never been more powerful.

Its ranks have swelled to a historic 60 members, who represent more than 120 million Americans — more than a quarter of the U.S. population. And many of their members are from majority-white districts.

Their Monday evening call with the president in his moment of need demonstrated that their strength lies in them remaining unified and helping the ticket remain intact — and not disrupting it with just weeks to go before their summer convention.

Notably, none of the handful of House Democrats on record calling for Biden to step aside are CBC members.

In my conversations with these members, I asked about the political calculations of sticking with Biden. After all, this bloc has the power to sink the sitting president — and perhaps open the door for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the first Black woman leading the Democratic ticket.

“We have our candidate — they are a team,” said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) when asked why the caucus is not trying to elevate Harris, a onetime CBC member, to the top of the ticket. “We are fortunate to have a very strong team.”

Blunt Rochester, who is attempting to make history this year as the first Black woman from her state elected to the Senate, chided those looking to push Biden aside, even if it would provide a glidepath for Harris.

“I don’t know where some folks are going with this, but the president has called on us to be unified on this. I hope the coverage shows that the overwhelming number of members who support this president are so much greater than those calling for change.”

That’s a sentiment echoed by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.).

“I would implore people to pop all of those trial balloons,” she told The Recast.

Millions of the voters who cast ballots in the Democratic presidential primary were African Americans, she said, who overwhelmingly supported Biden. She suggested that restless congressional Democrats looking to cast off the president would in essence send the message to Black voters that their votes don’t count.

“The last thing we want to do is alienate Black voters who have time and time again shown up for this country to save us,” she said.

Kamlager-Dove, Blunt Rochester and several other CBC members joined Harris over the weekend in New Orleans, where the vice president was the keynote speaker at the Essence Fest, which drew record crowds of Black women to the Crescent City.

Interestingly, the moderator, Essence CEO Caroline Wanga, did not ask Harris about Biden’s debate performance — or whether he should continue on as the nominee.

Like many of the CBC members The Recast spoke with, former CBC Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) said she unequivocally backs Biden, and is also a big supporter of Harris. She, too, was in New Orleans with Harris.

When asked if the CBC support for Biden was a calculated decision, because of reports that some in the party aren’t universally behind Harris as the heir apparent, she said she didn’t want to deal in hypotheticals, but then offered this:

“Obviously, we live in a world where there's still systemic racism,” Beatty said. “We also know that women have a harder time and [she’s] a Black woman.”

“I don't think we have enough time to start over.”

We’ll continue to monitor whether the CBC’s united front is enough to help the president weather the most dangerous political storm of his career.

All the best,
The Recast Team

AMBER ROSE TO SPEAK AT THE RNC

The Republican National Convention kicks off next week and the model, rapper and former video vixen Amber Rose has been slotted for a speaking role, a source familiar with the event planning confirmed to The Recast.

The news was blasted by Rose herself to her 3.5 million followers on the social media platform X on Monday: “It's True! I’m speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee #MAGA”

Those who only know Rose from her tabloid-worthy relationships with rappers Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Wiz Khalifa, to whom she was married for three years, likely haven’t noticed her public embrace of Trump in recent months.

In May, Rose posted a photo of herself standing next to Trump and former first lady Melania Trump on her Instagram page with the caption that simply read: “Trump 2024.”

In June, she made a cameo in the music video of the so-called Trump rapper Forgiato Blow, who calls himself the “Mayor of Magaville” for a song dubbed “Trump Trump Baby.”

Many may be taken aback by her apparent political flip from the sex-positive feminist behind the “SlutWalk” movement to bonafide Trumper.

But it’s clear she’s leaning into it. In a recent Instagram post, she is posing poolside, back to the camera, wearing one of the ubiquitous “Make America Great Again” caps, leaving little to the imagination — including where her political allegiances lie.

ICYMI @ POLITICO

Gallego’s Big Money Haul — Arizona Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego raised more than $10 million in the second quarter in his Senate race against Republican Kari Lake. POLITICO’s Ally Mutnick explores what it all means.

NATO Leaders to Watch — With the NATO Summit kicking off in Washington today, a team effort from several folks at POLITICO bring you a who’s who to watch for at this pivotal world summit as Biden tries to navigate his tumultuous bid for reelection.

Possible Biden Replacements — If you’re into visuals, you’ll love this breakdown from POLITICO’s Calder McHugh on the pros and cons of the potential replacements being bandied about. 

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