President Joe Biden has said repeatedly that he is in it to win it and there are no ifs, ands or buts about it. However, there’s a growing call for Biden to get out of the race and let a younger more appealing Democrat be nominated as the party’s presidential candidate for 2024.

It’s not clear how that will all hash out but, interestingly, a prominent Democratic leader who was supposed to attend the upcoming fundraising Gala for the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro has pulled out – and that sudden and unusual absence may very well say something about what is expected to happen in the coming two weeks in regard to Biden and the presidential race.

Earlier this year, the Museum announced that it was bestowing its highest award to US Congressman Kweisi Mfume, who represents Maryland’s 7th congressional district. He was supposed to be the guest of honor and receive the award. However, earlier this week, the Museum announced that Mfume would not be attending and now the awarded guest of honor will be civil rights leader and syndicated columnist Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

The Gala is a huge event for the Museum, and for the main guest of honor to pull out just over a week before the event was not a decision that was made lightly.

In his message to Museum leaders, Mfume expressed his regrets at being unable to attend the Gala “in view of recent developments in the State of Maryland and the attention due from a member of Congress in response to the current electoral situation.”

While that message is somewhat cryptic, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston told the Rhino Times that the second part did refer to the current electoral decision regarding the Democratic presidential race.

Alston said he was not certain what the “recent developments in the State of Maryland” referred to, but it could be a reference, Alston said, to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Port of Baltimore.

However, that collapse occurred in late March, while the collapse of Biden’s campaign for the presidency began on June 27 and has been getting worse ever since.  Mfume’s cancellation didn’t come after the collapse of the bridge, but only after the collapse of Biden’s campaign.

Democratic leaders want these conversations to take place sooner rather than later so the talks will almost certainly happen in the next week or two.

So, while Biden says there’s nothing to talk about, the absence of the key Democrat at the Gala may say that there is.