Good morning. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Monday, July 1st, and here's what's driving the day.

During a huddle at Camp David this weekend, Joe Biden's family urged him to stay in the race.

That is, despite his abysmal debate performance last Thursday, and despite the avalanche of Democrats,

editorial boards, and some longtime Biden friends even calling on him to step aside and allow a new

nominee to come forward. The New York Times was the first to break this, well, rather unsurprising

story, and they note that Hunter Biden in particular has been telling his

dad to fight. Everyone who has followed the saga over the past few days knows that the person

whose opinion matters most is Jill's, his wife. And Jill is firmly of the mind that Biden should

stay in. The Biden campaign, meanwhile, spent the weekend trying to calm nervous donors.

NBC reported last night that during a tense late-night call, Biden's campaign manager, Julie Chavez-Rodriguez, told a group of 40 of Biden's top financial backers that replacing Biden would be messy and impractical.

She said most of his war chest would go to vice president, Kamala Harris, and only a small amount would actually go to the DNC. But the fact that they're even having these

conversations just underscores how their attempt to calm people's nerves is not working.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, yes, not a single Democratic lawmaker has gone on record calling for Biden to step aside, but that doesn't mean they're not all thinking it right now. In fact, most of them are. As I write in playbook today, Hill Democrats are increasingly resigned to this belief that Joe Biden's candidacy is dead. And they're now worried about him dragging down the Senate and the House.

Senior Democrats are not going to admit this out loud. Okay, forget about it. In fact,

party elders, I'm told, are going to continue to go on TV and defend Biden as the best choice

to lead the country as they did on yesterday's Sunday show circuit. But behind the scenes,

there are conversations going on

about a change in strategy should Biden insist on continuing in the race. Basically, democratic lawmakers

and deep-pocketed donors they're talking to believe the focus needs to turn from what now seems

like a frivolous attempt to keep the White House to ensuring a congressional check on the second Trump term.

Read more about that in playbook this morning.

Republicans, of course, are having a heyday right now.

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