Wednesday Briefing: A Turbulent Moment in U.S. Politics

Leaders of the Democratic National Committee are moving to confirm President Biden as the party’s nominee before the end of July, according to four people briefed on the matter. The move would quiet disagreement among Democrats about Biden’s viability as a candidate against Donald Trump in the November election.

Doubts about Biden have persisted since his poor debate performance last month. Adam Schiff, a Democrat running for the Senate, told a private meeting of donors on Saturday that “I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose.” He warned that the party could lose the Senate and miss a chance to take the House if the president did not drop out.

A group of Democratic representatives is trying to rally support for delaying the official nomination to allow potential challenges to it at the party convention in Chicago next month. But under party rules, it is virtually impossible to replace Biden unless he steps aside. He said in a televised interview on Monday that he had no plans to do so. The president’s inner circle has tightened since the debate, and he is now consulting mainly with a group of true believers.

Trump shooting: The Secret Service faced growing questions over its failure to stop the attempted assassination of Trump, including about how the agency handled reports of a suspicious person at the Pennsylvania rally. In the weeks before the shooting, U.S. intelligence agencies were tracking an unrelated Iranian plot to assassinate Trump, officials said.

Republicans: On a leaked phone call, Trump tried to coax Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as a third-party candidate, into his camp. Here’s our coverage of the second day of the Republican National Convention. Also, read about how J.D. Vance came to be