©  Getty

President Biden said Friday he’ll return to the campaign trail next week after he recovers from COVID-19, even as the floodgates opened on Capitol Hill with panicked Democrats calling on him to step aside.

• Over the past 24 hours, more than a dozen Democrats in the House and Senate have urged the president to make way for a new candidate.
  
  
• The total is up to 31 Democrats in the House and three in the Senate.

The count has been rising by the hour, and includes:

• Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who is among the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection, and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who is running in a traditionally blue state that Republicans believe is up or grabs in November.
  
  
• Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), who became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to come out against Biden.
  
  
• Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), who called on Biden to drop out on the same day the CHC’s super PAC endorsed Biden.
  
  
• Progressive Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
  
  
• Frontline Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio).

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) wrote a letter to Biden, which is indicative of where many Democrats stand:

“Your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot….I urge you to step aside from our Party’s nomination to allow another Democratic candidate to compete.”

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who had previously called on Biden to step aside, had an eye-opening op-ed in the Boston Globe:

“I saw [Biden] in a small group at Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me.”

Keep up with all the defections with Decision Desk HQ’s dropout tracker.

Despite the groundswell, the Biden campaign and White House blanketed the airwaves on Friday, insisting the president will stay in the race and win:

• Biden released a statement saying he’d return to the campaign trail next week after he’s recovered from COVID. “The stakes are high and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”
  
  
• Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon made a rare appearance on cable news, going on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to insist Biden has a path to victory. “We believe on this campaign, we are built for the close election we are in and we see the path forward. He’s the best person to take on Donald Trump.”
  
  
• The campaign released a memo from battleground states director Dan Kanninen, who urged the party to stop fighting over Biden’s future and to focus on defeating Trump instead. “In a few short weeks, Joe Biden will be the official nominee. It is high past time we stop fighting one another. The only person who wins when we fight is Donald Trump.”

The Biden campaign and White House have been disputing every media report indicating Biden is considering backing out.

Among the recent reports:

The Hill: Biden decision on future expected in days, Harris considered heir apparent.

NBC News: Biden family discussing his possible exit.

Politico: Harris allies prep her defense.

The campaign's efforts to stop the flow of speculation have been hampered by the mixed messaging coming from Biden’s closest allies, including Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).

• At a panel in Aspen on Friday, Coons said Biden is “weighing” whether to remain in the race.
  
  
• Coons followed that up with a post on X saying Biden had made up his mind to stay in the race. “I fully support the President. He's told me he's in it to win it. I'm with him 100% because I know he can beat Trump just like he did last time.”

Ironically, Congress's most progressive members have emerged as Biden’s most consistent and vociferous allies amid weeks of turbulence:

• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on MSNBC: "If we start focusing on his record, focusing on what he is trying to do, not only is he going to win it, he gives us a chance to win in a big way."
  
  
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) warned establishment Democrats are trying to get rid of Biden and Vice President Harris.
  
  
• Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) posted on X: “I can’t tell you all how shameful it feels to hear all these leaks about what Democratic leaders are [saying] and not to have a single one of them out here confirming or denying it. It’s a lack of leadership and it’s making all Democrats look bad.”

Perspectives:

The Washington Post: Rushing Biden’s nomination would be a grave mistake

CNN: Inside the Democrats’ doom loop.

The Free Press: Biden is riskier than Trump.

Related coverage: 

• Biden World resists speculation he’ll exit the race.
• Biden on the brink.
• Betting sites have Harris as the favorite.

Welcome to Evening Report! I'm Jonathan Easley, catching you up from the afternoon and what's coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial in Russia. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The U.S. government and Wall Street Journal insist Gershkovich was wrongly detained while on a reporting trip.
  
  

• Hunter Biden moves to dismiss charges after judge tosses Trump documents case.
  
  

• Millions of student loan payments paused after court halts Biden's plan.

©  AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

More than 10 million people watched Fox News Channel in the 10 o’clock hour Wednesday to see former President Trump’s convention speech, making it the network’s highest-rated convention ever.

• Millions more tuned in to other networks and platforms to see Hulk Hogan ripping off his shirt, Kid Rock playing the hits and Trump giving his first-hand account of being shot.
  
  
• The spectacle captured Trump’s showbusiness instincts and his campaign's mixing of culture and politics.

Republicans are leaving Milwaukee flying high, with their biggest concern being whether a weakened President Biden will carry on.

There’s a lot of concern trolling by Trump’s allies, who are hoping Biden stays in the race.

Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita told Politico that efforts to oust Biden amount to “an attempted coup.”

“They are actively engaged in an attempt in my view — and a lot of people share this view — in deposing the President of the United States.

Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller said on X:

“Nothing says democracy like holding a fake primary and then having donors handpick a nominee behind closed doors.”

Republicans are bolstered by new polls that show Trump opening up his biggest leads of the cycle.

The latest from CBS News:

National: Trump +4

Battlegrounds: Trump +3

THE LANDSCAPE HAS SHIFTED so dramatically that Republicans are considering incursions into traditionally blue states, such as Virginia, which Biden carried by more than 10 points in 2020.

• The Decision Desk HQ average finds Biden leading Trump by just over 1 point in Virginia, where no GOP candidate has won since 2004.
  
  
• The two most recent polls of the state found Trump holding a small lead.

The Hill’s Julia Manchester spoke with Zack Roday, the Virginia-based Republican strategist who formerly worked with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC. 

“It’s a toss-up in Virginia. Biden is at his low point and I don’t believe Trump has reached his high point yet.”

Next up: Trump and newly minted running mate JD Vance will travel to swing-state Michigan for a rally in Grand Rapids on Saturday.

• New polls show Trump leading in Michigan, which he won in 2016 but lost in 2020.
  
  
• Biden’s likeliest path back to the White House is for his “Blue Wall” to hold, meaning he can’t afford to lose in Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.

Perspectives:

Tablet: The birth of a folk hero.

The Bulwark: The Political-Entertainment Complex.

MSNBC: RNC speech proves there’s never a new Trump. 

Compact: Why the left gets Vance wrong

The Hill: Vance’s working man pledge is a knockout blow for Biden.

U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Director Kimberly Cheatle will appear at a public hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee on Monday morning to explain security failures leading up to the assassination attempt against former President Trump.

The appearance ends a brief standoff between the Oversight committee and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which had pushed for a later date.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, Overshight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) issued a joint statement explaining the importance of conducting the hearing as quickly as possible.

“Americans have many serious questions about the historic security failures that occurred at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle must appear before the House Oversight Committee without delay on Monday, July 22 to answer our many questions and provide the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve and that are at the foundation of our government.”

In a statement, the Secret Service said it’s “fully accountable for the safety of its protectees.”

“We are committed to better understanding what happened before, during, and after the assassination attempt of former President Trump to ensure it never happens again. That includes complete cooperation with Congress, the FBI, and other relevant investigations.”

Cheatle reportedly briefed Trump Tuesday at a hotel in Milwaukee, according to ABC News. 

Congressional Republicans, including House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Josh Hawley (D-Mo.), say they’ve received explosive claims from whistleblowers detailing Secret Service failures.

“Detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner,” Hawely said Friday. “Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas. Department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium and were also not stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter.”

The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell has the full rundown on all the latest revelations here. Notably:

• Law enforcement identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as a person of interest 62 minutes before the shooting.
  
  
• Trump was allowed on stage despite the hunt for Crooks being underway.
  
  
• Local police said they didn’t have the manpower to secure the building where the shooter fired from. Cheatle said there was no sniper on top of the roof because it was “sloped” and too dangerous for law enforcement to ascend.

Related coverage:

• DHS inspector general opens third probe into shooting. 

©  Harry Nakos/Associated Press

A global tech outage on Friday grounded flights, wreaked havoc on hospitals and took broadcasters off the air.

The outage was the result of a Microsoft update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike that went awry. CrowdStrike said it has identified the issue and that repairs are underway.

The fallout:

• Thousands of flights have been canceled and tens of thousands have been delayed.
  
  
• Hospitals rerouted non-urgent visits to local clinics due to systems failures.
  
  
• Some broadcast networks were briefly off the air due to the outage.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said it the outage was not related to a cyberattack. He apologized in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show:

“I want to start with saying we’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this, including our company. So, we know what the issue is. We’re resolving and have resolved the issue. Now it’s recovering systems that are out there.”

Background:

• In 2015, after the FBI alerted the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that its databases had been breached, the DNC hired CrowdStrike to conduct an investigation and secure its systems.
  
  
• CrowdStrike says it has evidence that Russian hackers were behind the DNC breach, kicking off the years-long inquest into Russian involvement in U.S. elections.

Related coverage: 

• AP live updates: Offices hit as internet users face disruptions.
• Huge Microsoft outage linked to CrowdStrike takes down computers around the world.
• How the tech outage is impacting global operations.

Here are the newsmakers who will be making TV appearances Sunday:

CNN “State of the Union”: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D).

ABC “This Week”: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

FOX “Fox News Sunday”: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). 

CBS “Face the Nation”: House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio); Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.).

NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.). 

"Who normalized political violence in America?," by Lee Smith for Tablet.

"Complacency not conspiracy: Why did the Secret Service fail?," by Patrick B. O'Shea for The Hill.

31 days until the Democratic National Convention in MIlwaukee.

53 days until the second presidential debate.

109 days until the 2024 general election.

185 days until Inauguration Day 2025.

Saturday

• Trump and Vance hold a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., at 5 p.m. EDT.

You're all caught up! Stay with TheHill.com for the latest and recommend this newsletter to others: TheHill.com/Evening. See you next week!