Biden nomination won’t be fast-tracked, buys time for skeptics

The Democratic National Committee said that any virtual roll call to officially nominate President Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee will not begin before Aug. 1, according to a Wednesday letter sent to delegates and obtained by NBC News.

The decision rules out the possibility that a process designed to quickly nominate Biden would begin as soon as next week, which some Biden allies had pushed for.

It also buys more time for Democrats on Capitol Hill to come together and ask Biden to step down from the ticket, as many Democratic lawmakers publicly or privately voice concerns about the president’s age and fitness.

The House and Senate are out of town this week, but return to Washington the week of July 22.

“No matter what may be reported, our goal is not to fast-track,” wrote Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Bishop Leah Daughtry, co-chairs of the DNC‘s rules committee. “None of this will be rushed. Unlike our nation’s other major political party, our rules are set in public meetings, anchored in the Party’s charter and its traditions.”

Walz and Daughtry’s letter also quelled some growing concerns on Capitol Hill about the early voting process.

On Wednesday, in response to the DNC’s decision, House Democrats called off a drafted letter they were planning to send to the DNC urging it to cancel its accelerated virtual roll-call timeline.

“We’re glad to see that the pressure worked, and the DNC will not be moving forward with the rushed process, so we won’t be sending a letter at this time,” a spokesperson for California Rep. Jared Huffman, one of the Democratic lawmakers leading the effort, told CNBC on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also urged the DNC to delay the voting process, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News and CNBC.

While the nomination process will not start before August, Walz and Daughtry noted, it will end before the in-person Democratic convention starts on Aug. 19. Democrats decided to hold their convention unusually late this year, in part so that it did not overlap with the Olympics. But the late start risks bumping up against several state deadlines for presidential nominations.

The Wednesday letter comes as the DNC faces ongoing pressure from some Democrats, who want to cancel the expedited nomination timeline altogether and give the party time to find a new nominee.

Simmering concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity burst into public view during his disastrous debate performance on June 27 against former President Donald Trump.

As…