Obama ‘fears’ Biden’s victory path has diminished as president weighs up candidacy

Milwaukee: A once defiant Joe Biden is said to be considering his candidacy for the 2024 election, with former president Barack Obama expressing concerns to allies and Democrat stalwart Nancy Pelosi privately telling the incumbent that the party is unlikely to win back Congress if he stays.

Two weeks after declaring that only “the Almighty” could convince him to stand down after his devastating debate performance upended his campaign, the political walls have begun closing in on the president as top Democrats make a last-minute push for him to rethink his bid.

Barack Obama (left) and Joe Biden pictured together n March.Credit: AP

As Donald Trump accepted his nomination at the Republican National Convention, The New York Times reported that several people close to the president said on Thursday (Friday AEST) that they believe he has begun to accept that he may not be able to win in November.

While some of those aides have cautioned that the president has not necessarily made up his mind, the situation has become increasingly untenable.

Earlier, The Washington Post reported that Obama had told allies in recent days that Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished, and he thinks the president should consider whether it was viable to remain in the race.

Biden is at his home in Delaware after contracting COVID-19 and is currently relying on a tight circle of a few long-time aides as speculation over his future mounts.

President Joe Biden walks to his car after stepping off of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Wednesday.Credit: AP

Asked if Biden was considering dropping out, Senator Chris Coons, one of the president’s closest friends in the US Congress, told CNN: “Look, I think he weighs very seriously the input of those he trusts and admires, those who have served with him. And beyond that, I’m not going to get into the details.”

The speculation around Biden’s future comes weeks out from the Democratic National Convention, in which he was due to be officially anointed as the party’s presidential nominee. But amid ongoing concerns about his mental acuity, a growing number of Democrats have called for the president to stand down.

California congressman Adam Schiff, who is close to Democratic stalwart Nancy Pelosi, became the most senior Democrat to do so on Wednesday, and soon after reports emerged that the two top Democrats in Congress, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, had gone to Biden with the concerns of their members.

Biden has previously insisted that his dismal debate was “one bad night” and not emblematic of a broader neurological problem.

He has also said that only God could get him to stand down, although in an interview with BET this week, the president said he would do so “if I had some medical condition that emerged”.

In a news conference at the close of the NATO summit in Washington last week, Biden was also asked whether he would step aside if aides showed him that Vice President Kamala Harris would be a stronger opponent than he would be against Trump.

He initially responded “no” but then added: “Unless they came back and said, ‘there’s no way you can win.’”

The latest RealClearPolitics poll has Trump ahead of Biden at the national level (47.7 per cent to 44.7 per cent) with the Republican ahead in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“My sense is that this thing is on a trajectory,” said David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser.

“Joe Biden is a very strong and defiant guy. He believes in himself and he has defied the odds before, but the confluence of things that are coming in right now are very hard to overcome.”

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