President Biden appears to be sticking the course Friday, as he continues his COVID isolation in Delaware, saying that he'll return to the campaign trail next week. But Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled, last minute, to a join a call with some major Democratic donors.

A call that was reportedly arranged by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman was set to occur Friday afternoon to "discuss urgent, emerging needs" with donors, according to an email from Hoffman obtained by the New York Times. Hoffman addressed the email to his network of "friends and allies" in Silicon Valley and beyond.

"We continue to find ourselves in a rapidly evolving environment," Hoffman writes. "With the stakes as high as they are this cycle, we have to remain focused on the critical work that needs to be done to protect our democracy."

Clearly this is a call to either quell donors' nervousness about Biden remaining in the race, or to have some other serious discussion about how to coax him out of it. It's reportedly going to be a 30-minute briefing, and it's not clear how much speaking Harris will be doing, or what message she will try to convey — though until  Biden changes his mind, it seems like there's little she can say beyond what's already been said, that everyone has to back Biden and quit whining.

An unlikely champion for Biden also dug in her heels with an hour-long Instagram Live stream Thursday night. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cautioned against hopes for a brokered convention, saying, "People need to understand the reality and the gravity of what these people are proposing. I’m not saying this is all a reason not to do it, but I do think people are talking about this without having two eyes wide open as to what this really means... I have not seen an alternative scenario that I feel will not set us up for enormous peril."

Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Representative Zoe Lofgren, a longtime veteran of the House, became the latest House Democrat to urge Biden to step aside. In a letter Thursday night, Lofgren wrote, "Simply put, your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot. It is for these reasons that I urge you to step aside from our party’s nomination to allow another Democratic candidate to compete against and beat Donald Trump in the November election."

All of this continues to put Harris in an incredibly awkward position, with reports emerging Thursday evening that Biden was potentially inching closer to a decision to step aside and endorse her. But those reports were seemingly contradicted by reports Friday morning.

As the Times reports, according to friends close to Biden, it has been "painfully evident" that what has largely been motivating Biden's defiance in the last few weeks is his regret and anger over the decision to bow to pressure in 2015 and not challenge Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination then.

What happens next, if Biden were to step aside, is certainly fraught. A brokered convention, Ocasio-Cortez said, is a "crazy" notion. "If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave that they will support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken," she said.

This is a developing story.

Previously: Pelosi, the Biden Whisperer? Former Speaker Reportedly Tells Biden He Won't Win

Top image: US Vice President Kamala Harris attends a moderated conversation with former Trump administration national security official Olivia Troye and former Republican voter Amanda Stratton on July 17, 2024 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Harris' visit, following the attempted assassination of former President Trump, makes this her fourth trip to Michigan this year and seventh visit since taking office. (Photo by Chris duMond/Getty Images)