Biden reportedly ‘more receptive’ to growing pleas to stand aside

Washington: Top Democrats including US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi are said to have increased pressure on Joe Biden to withdraw from his reelection campaign, amid reports the president had become “more receptive” to hearing arguments about leaving the race.

Schumer told Biden in a meeting over the weekend it would be better for the country and the Democratic Party if he ended his reelection campaign, US broadcaster ABC News reported. US House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has expressed similar views directly to Biden, ABC News reported, citing a source familiar with the conversation.

President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware,.Credit: AP

Pelosi, too, has told Biden polling shows he cannot defeat Trump and that the president could destroy the Democrats’ chances of winning back control of the House of Representatives, CNN reported.

Pelosi spoke to Biden in a recent telephone call, CNN reported, citing four sources briefed on the call. None of the sources indicated Pelosi told Biden he should leave the race, CNN said.

Biden responded by telling Pelosi he has seen polling indicating he can win, according to one CNN source. A Pelosi spokesperson told CNN that Pelosi has not spoken to Biden since Friday.

And, The New York Times, citing Democrats briefed on conversations, reported that while Biden had given no indication he was changing his mind, he had become more receptive in the last few days to hearing new polling and asked how Vice President Kamala Harris could win.

The barrage of media reporting about about Biden’s future came as California Representative Adam Schiff has become the highest-profile Democrat to call publicly for Joe Biden to drop his re-election bid.

Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again this year. But publicly and privately, key Democrats are sending signals of concern and some hope he will assess the trajectory of the race and his legacy during this few days’ pause.

While the tensions over Biden’s ability to carry on a winning campaign subsided some, particularly after the Trump assassination attempt and as the Republican National Convention was underway in Milwaukee, Democrats know they have limited time to resolve the party turmoil after the president’s faltering debate performance last month.

Many Democrats do want Biden to stay in the race. And the Democratic National Committee is pushing ahead with plans for a virtual vote to formally make Biden its nominee in the first week of August, ahead of the Democratic National Convention that begins on August 19 in Chicago.

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer at the State of the Union address in March. Credit: AP

Late on Wednesday, ABC News reported new details about Biden’s private meeting over the weekend with Schumer at the president’s beach home in Delaware. It said Schumer told the president it would be “better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country if he were to bow out.”

A Schumer spokesperson called the report “idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden told Schumer, as well as Jeffries, that “he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”

But among Democrats nationwide, nearly two-thirds say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. That sharply undercuts Biden’s post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.

Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while travelling on Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.

The president, who has spent the past several days campaigning, had already been scheduled to return to his Delaware beach home even before the diagnosis.

Schiff’s announcement brings to nearly 20 the number of Democratic members of Congress calling on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race in the wake of his dismal debate performance against Trump last month.

Schiff said that by bowing out, Biden would “secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”

Democrat congressman Adam Schiff is the latest politician to call on US President Joe Biden not to stand for re-election.Credit: Bloomberg

Schiff is a prominent Democrat on his own, and his statement will also be watched because of his proximity to Pelosi.

It was Pelosi who revived questions about Biden post-debate, when she said recently that “it’s up to the president” to decide what to do, even though Biden had already fully stated he had no intention of stepping aside. The former House speaker publicly supports the president, but has fielded calls from Democrats since the debate questioning what’s next.

In response to Schiff’s comments, the Biden campaign pointed to what it called “extensive support” for him and his reelection bid from members of Congress in key swing states, as well as from the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses. The campaign noted that Biden had been joined on his trip to Nevada this week by nearly a dozen Congressional Black Caucus members.

Still, Schiff’s announcement came after Schumer and Jeffries encouraged the party to delay for a week plans to hold the virtual vote to renominate Biden, which could have taken place as soon as Sunday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The Democratic National Committee’s rulemaking arm is set to meet by the end of the week to discuss how the virtual vote plans will work and to finalise them next week.

AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.