President Biden beat back the initial public campaign by Democrats to oust him from the party's presidential ticket, swiftly and decisively. But very-connected Democrats, mostly veterans of the Obama and Clinton administrations, are plotting hourly to get him to withdraw quickly, Jim and Mike write.

• They're commissioning polls, lobbying former presidents, back-channeling Democratic leaders, organizing donors and taking the fight to Biden in a very public way.
• They're the unofficial Committee to Unelect the President. The mission: Push Biden out of the presidential race — the sooner, the better.

Why it matters: This loose anti-Biden network is growing by the day — and is circulating polls showing Democrats would shoot from sure losers to big winners with a new ticket. Some donors are talking of a massive financial commitment to any non-Biden presidential ticket.

• These Democrats see the race in stark, black-and-white terms: Just three states matter — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. That's the Blue Wall, all of which Biden won in 2020.
• And they see an obvious solution: Forget the niceties of backing Biden or even Vice President Harris. Be ruthless about finding the two people most likely to win those three states.

💡 How it works: The anti-Biden Democrats are trading texts, emails and polling, fighting fellow Democrats on TV and X, and circulating stories and arguments by sympathetic journalists and columnists, including Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias.

• Many are in conversation with lawmakers to push their leaders to squeeze Biden and his inner circle. They know Biden and his family seem unmovable — so they hope for the use of overwhelming force by the Obamas + Clintons + Schumer + Jeffries + Pelosi.

Members of this notional committee tell us there's no hidden hand — no command and control. Instead, these are all people who've worked together on past campaigns.

• "No one is more than one person away from everyone else," a central player told us. And almost all are one step away from former presidents Obama or Clinton.

⚜️ James Carville, who helped propel Bill Clinton into the Oval Office, told us Clinton and Obama are sending a clear message by vanishing after they tweeted support for Biden the day after the debate.

• "Silence is a very loud form of speech," Carville said. "No one is saying 'come hell or high water.'"
• Obama has spoken privately with former Speaker Pelosi over their "concerns" about Biden's viability, CNN reports.

🥊 Reality check: No one's sure the pressure campaign is working. It all depends on Biden, who controls the party's delegates and cannot be defeated for the nomination if he stays in — no matter how bleak the outlook for November.

• "You need a psychiatrist more than a spin doctor," a veteran operative told me.

Column continues below.

A "fatalism" and "sense of resignation" grip the party from coast to coast, Jim and Mike write.

• "The Clinton diaspora is freaking the hell out," said one alumnus of Clinton's White House. "But all these people going on the record aren't helping. All it seems to have done is cause the Bidens to dig in deeper."
• In what one operative called a "donor strike," top party benefactors — who don't want to be named, because they know a donor-led revolt would backfire — are moving money away from Biden, and into House and Senate campaigns as a hedge against a victory by former President Trump.

The committee includes:

1. Former Obama aides: The strained relationship between Obama and Biden extends to their former aides, including David Axelrod (Obama's ruthlessly pragmatic chief strategist) and the influential "Pod Save America" guys. Biden has reportedly called Axelrod a "prick," and threw shade at him — "Oh! You're kidding" — during Monday's call-in on "Morning Joe." The pod guys — Obama alumni Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer — have irritated Biden's camp by arguing for a new candidate. Lovett writes that it's "hard to deny that in the two weeks since the debate, it's the arrogant and small Joe Biden we've seen most."
2. Former Clinton advisers: Carville, appearing all over the cable dial, says unsparingly that a new candidate is inevitable, whether the president admits it or not. Keeping him would be "an idiotic choice for the future of this country," Carville told Anderson Cooper on CNN.
3. Elected Dems: Massive pressure is building from rank-and-file members of the Democratic caucus. One Democratic senator (Peter Welch of Vermont) and 17 House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to drop out. Scores more are furious at the White House for pushing them to support a president they view as unelectable.
4. Swing-seat Dems: This is the group that really matters. Vulnerable Democrats have a clear-eyed view of the president's prospects. These Dems will abandon him — some already have — if they sense their seats are in jeopardy.
5. The donor class: George Clooney, who headlined the largest fundraiser in Democratic Party history last month, is the leading voice of a growing number of Hollywood types who want Biden to end his candidacy. The group includes Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel (Rahm's brother).
6. Late-night liberals: Stephen Colbert — who moderated a major Biden fundraiser at Radio City in March — strongly suggested the president should step aside: "I think that Biden debated as well as Abraham Lincoln, if you dug him up right now." Jon Stewart has escalated pleas for the nominee to be someone else. He hosted Favreau and Vietor on his podcast yesterday.
7. N.Y. Times Opinion: Debate-night columns by Tom Friedman and Nick Kristoff gave way to full-throated editorials — all saying Biden must go.
8. Biden aides busily leaking: "Some longtime aides and advisers to President Biden," the N.Y. Times reports, "have become increasingly convinced that he will have to step aside from the campaign, and in recent days they have been trying to come up with ways to persuade him that he should."

🔎 Between the lines: Two prominent ex-Biden aides — former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield and press secretary Jen Psaki — have suggested Harris as a promising alternative.

• Neither specifically called for Biden to step aside. But both have softly criticized the campaign's strategy and said he needs to put forward a coherent path to victory.

📺 What they're saying: Axelrod — who's making the case for Biden's withdrawal two or three times a day as CNN's senior political commentator — told us he aims to be "both realistic and respectful."

• "President Biden is a historic figure, and a lot of that is gonna be tainted if he persists and loses this race," Axelrod told us.
• "The people around him have [a collective] hundreds of years of campaign experience. They know how to interpret data. They know how to read the moment. It's just a question of whether their affection for him clouds that."

Noah Bressner contributed reporting.

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With the world watching, President Biden delivered a press conference performance strong enough to buy time from fence-sitting Democrats — but wobbly enough to keep the mutiny armed and dangerous, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

• Why it matters: It was the quintessential "two Bidens" performance, fueling both sides of the debate over his fitness for office at a moment when Democrats are desperate for two things: clarity and unity.

Closing out the three-day NATO summit, Biden displayed firm command of foreign policy details — framing the threat of a second Trump presidency as a "national security issue."

• But Biden, 81, also rambled and was incoherent at times, reinforcing Democrats' concerns that flared after his terrible debate two weeks ago.

5 takeaways

1. Polling denial: Biden argued that "all the polling data right now is premature because the campaign hasn't really started." The president said he would consider withdrawing from the race only if his advisers told him there was "no way" he could win — before whispering with a wry smile: "No one's saying that. No poll says that."
2. "Bridge candidate" no more: Asked what has changed since he referred to himself as a "bridge" to a new generation of leaders in 2020, Biden cited "the gravity of the situation" he inherited in terms of the economy, foreign policy and "domestic division."
3. Gaffes fuel groans: Biden drew audible sighs when he referred to Vice President Harris as "Vice President Trump" in his first unscripted answer. Hours earlier, Biden had set off a similar reaction among NATO leaders when he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "President Putin" — before quickly correcting the flub.
4. "Pacing" and blame: Biden disputed reports that he privately has acknowledged needing to go to bed earlier, reframing it as a matter of "pacing" himself each day. He also appeared to blame his staff for his packed schedule.
5. Floodgates crack open: Three House Democrats called on Biden to withdraw after the presser, with more expected to join in the coming days.

👀 What to watch: Biden's team believes he delivered the performance he needed. The campaign hopes that pressure will ease with the RNC kicking off in Milwaukee on Monday.

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There's lots to like about America's economy, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes:

• The Consumer Price Index yesterday was as good as an economic report can get. In June, CPI fell (yes, deflation!) for the first time since 2020.
• The unemployment rate is edging up, but still at an historically low level.
• Those looking at their 401(k)s can be pleased: Stocks are near a record high.

Why it matters: This is the economic sweet spot that Fed officials have been hoping for.

• From the standpoint of the Biden administration, the economy is performing just as they would have hoped.

🎨 The big picture: The economy is no longer in the rip-roaring state that helped stoke inflation.

• Instead economic activity is slowing — so far — in a way that's not too sudden. The gentle cooling gives the Fed room to cut interest rates possibly as soon as September.

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Nvidia's AI chips may be flying off the shelves. But Wall Street analysts are beginning to doubt they'll generate enough revenue to pay for themselves anytime soon, Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva writes.

• Why it matters: The U.S. stock market continues to hit new highs, driven largely by optimism surrounding the coming AI revolution.

In the best-case scenario from skeptics and cautious optimists, the promise of AI will take much longer to materialize than the current investment frenzy suggests.

• In the worst case, it never will.
• Either way, billions of dollars in capital are almost certain to be incinerated, warn reports from Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Sequoia Capital.

The other side: Tech leaders don't see "overbuilding" as a dirty word.

• They remember how the dotcom bubble overbuilt telecom capacity before the bust of 2000-2002 wiped out legions of investors.
• But within a handful of years, all that capacity — and plenty more — was put to good use.

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The price of postage stamps will go up for the second time this year on Sunday, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

• Why it matters: The 5¢ increase for First-Class stamps — to 73¢ — ties the record for the biggest hike ever.

Keep reading.

Revelers dash during the fifth day of the running of the bulls at the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, yesterday.

The Denver Zoo is coming up with creative ways for residents to cool down in triple-digit heat this week, Axios' Alayna Alvarez writes.

• That includes popsicles of frozen blood and meat for some of the zoo's carnivores (above).

Cold plunge bubble baths are given to the spotted hyenas.

• Custom shade canopies that cost $65,000 each have been set up for the flamingos.

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