President Joe Biden came under mounting pressure from senior Democrats to drop his re-election bid on Thursday, with former president Barack Obama, saying he thinks the ‘president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy’ and the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noting that “President Biden can be persuaded fairly soon to exit the presidential race.
Twenty-two Democratic members of Congress have publicly called for US President Joe Biden to step aside as the party’s presidential nominee, amid growing panic in the party that he will lose the presidency to Donald Trump and boost Republicans’ chances in congressional races.
But Biden has vowed to push on with his re-election bid, dismissing concerns that his persistence would cost the party. Biden, 81, said any candidates who doubt his ability should challenge him at the Democratic National Convention in August. “The bottom line here is that I am not going anywhere,” Biden insists.
Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that President Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, according to multiple people briefed on his thinking.
Obama has spoken with Biden only once since the debate, and he has been clear in his conversations with others that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make. He has emphasized that his concern is protecting Biden and his legacy, and has pushed back against the idea that he alone can influence Biden’s decision-making process.
Obama had a positive message on social media for Biden: “Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
Following Biden’s halting debate performance last month, and the panic it unleashed among Democrats in and outside of Washington, Nancy Pelosi has taken a strong, behind-the-scenes role in trying to resolve the political crisis by playing intermediary for upset rank-and-file Democrats.
He was reported to have told some House Democrats she believes President Biden can be persuaded fairly soon to exit the presidential race amid serious doubts he can win in November.
More than 20 members of Congress have now openly urged Biden to suspend his re-election bid, while many more have privately expressed concerns about his electability behind the scenes.
Senator Jon Tester from Montana said on Thursday evening that Biden “should not seek re-election to another term”.
“I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester said in a statement. “And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.”
Tester, who faces a tough re-election bid, is the second Democratic US senator and the latest senior lawmaker from Biden’s own party to publicly call on him to leave the race. Jim Costa, a Democratic House member from California, also urged Biden to step aside on Thursday, saying the president needed to “pass the torch” to the next generation.
Tester’s intervention came one day after Adam Schiff, a senior House Democrat and close Pelosi ally, called on the 81-year-old president to “pass the torch”, citing “serious concerns” about whether Biden could defeat Trump in November.
One House Democratic lawmaker said the crisis, which began last month with Biden’s disastrous performance at a debate with Trump, had reached a “breaking point”. “I don’t see how he survives this,” the lawmaker added.
With speculation over his future raging, Biden was isolating with Covid-19 at his Delaware home.
“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket,” insisted Biden campaign spokesperson Quentin Fulks. “He is, and will be, the Democratic nominee. He is staying in this race.”
Biden trails Trump in nearly all national and swing state polls, including surveys by Emerson College on Thursday of seven swing states and the US as a whole.
An Associated Press poll published on Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters wanted the president to step aside.
PredictIt, the online prediction market, showed the chances of Biden being the Democratic nominee had fallen sharply, while the chances of vice-president Kamala Harris being the party’s nominee had risen steeply.
Several influential donors and operatives said they expected Biden to step down. “Ninety per cent he’s out in days,” said a person who had been in touch with multiple Democratic representatives in Congress.
“I’m talking to donors all the time, they’re feeling more emboldened, there is momentum again. [A few days ago] it felt like it was dying down . . . but in the last two days people have been really reinvigorated,” said a donor who has been coordinating efforts to force Biden out.
Two influential Wall Street donors said they believed, but had no clear confirmation, that Biden’s determination to stay in the race was weakening and that news of his illness might provide an excuse to bow out.
Both said that Chuck Schumer, a close ally of Biden and the most senior Democrat in the Senate, had told the president the party risked losing the White House and Senate if he stayed in the race.
“We’ve made it clear to [Schumer] and Jeffries that the money is drying up unless there is a rapid change,” said one of the donors, referring also to Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives.
A spokesperson for Schumer did not respond to a request for comment.
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