‘Pop Pop’ Joe Biden faces D-Day as growing number of Democrats call for him to drop out
A growing number of senior Democrats are demanding Joe Biden drop out of the election race, with an imminent meeting set to spark “a reckoning”.
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A growing number of senior Democrats have joined calls for Joe Biden to drop out of the US election race over mounting concerns about his mental fitness, with insiders saying a “reckoning” is just hours away.
The president, 81, maintains he isn’t going anywhere and will face Republican nominee Donald Trump, who is 78, in November, despite growing unease among his allies after a worrying performance during a debate late last month.
Now, details of a conference call overnight, organised by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, which aimed to “take the temperature” of ranking members and leaders, have been leaked to CNN.
And the general consensus among those most spooked by the president’s ability to beat Mr Trump is that Vice President Kamala Harris must step in.
A source told the broadcaster that there was a palpable sense of “deep concern” about damage to Democratic election efforts, with the number of politicians explicitly calling for Mr Biden to step aside far outnumbering those who insisted he should stay.
A senior staffer told CNN of the meeting: “It was pretty brutal.”
“One of the concerns expressed during the nearly two hour call was that Democrats will lose their chance at the house majority if Biden is the candidate … it was generally acknowledged the nominee should be Vice President Kamala Harris,” the CNN report reads.
‘The day the dam will break’
A meeting of Democrats on Tuesday morning has been described as ‘D-Day’, with a formal dinner the evening before expected to mark the beginning of a “reckoning”, Fox News reports.
“We will learn where Democrats stand with President Biden during this reckoning, and we may even learn whether the president is staying in the race or standing down,” the outlet’s senior congressional correspondence Chad Pergram wrote.
A senior House Democrat concurred with that assessment, telling CNN that “dozens” of colleagues want to see the president drop out of the election race.
The source said that the caucus wants to “find the best way to move forward”, describing Tuesday’s meeting at “the most consequential day” for Mr Biden.
Another told CNN that Tuesday will be “the day the dam will break”.
The White House has worked overtime to hose down speculation about the president’s cognitive health and rubbished any suggestion he be replaced as the Democratic nominee.
The president himself has slammed suggestions he quit the race.
“I am running,” Mr Biden said last week. “I am the leader of the Democratic Party. No one is pushing me out.”
Politician’s unfortunate remarks
Democrats have done their best to dodge television cameras over the past week to avoid having to comment on Mr Biden’s fitness.
But one was cornered in a car park at the Capitol in Washington DC, delivering an unfortunate description of the president.
Adriano Espaillat, a Congressman from New York, was pressed on whether he still supported Mr Biden.
“I’m staying with Pop Pop,” Mr Espaillat said.
A string of other Democrats have rallied behind the president, with Senator Alex Padilla of California conceding “the debate was not the best performance” but praising Mr Biden’s campaign prowess.
‘The president appears unwell’
A senior Republican has written to White House physician Dr Kevin O’Connor, demanding he appear before Congress to answer questions about the president’s condition.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer claimed Dr O’Connor has long-running business “connections” to the Biden family and questioned whether he is “in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the president’s fitness to serve”.
That serious imputation stems from revelations that Dr O’Connor was associated with the company Americore, which runs hospitals in rural America.
The president’s brother James Biden worked for Americore and told a probe conducted by the House Oversight Committee that Dr O’Connor “provided him counsel in connection with … work he was performing” for the company.
“Given your connections with the Biden family, the Committee also seeks to understand if you are in a position to provide accurate and independent reviews of the President’s fitness to serve,” Mr Comer wrote.
“After a concerning debate performance by President Biden against former President Donald Trump on June 27, journalists have rushed to report on what Americans have seen plainly for years: the president appears unwell.”
In February, Dr O’Connor issued a summary of the president’s condition, noting Mr Biden is “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old … who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency”.
The White House has confirmed the president hasn’t been examined by a doctor since February.
The president has rubbished suggestions he submit to a cognitive test, and on a call with Democratic governors from across the country last week, Mr Biden insisted he was in good health.
Likely to ‘lose by a landslide’
David Axelrod, one of the masterminds of former president Barack Obama’s two election wins, believes it’s more likely Mr Biden will “lose by a landslide” than just scrape in come November.
The top political strategist told CNN program Inside Politics yesterday that the president must consider the “high stakes” and do “the right thing”.
“If you just look at the data and talk to people around the country, political people around the country, it’s more likely that he’ll lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race,” Mr Axelrod said.
He described Mr Biden’s weekend interview with ABC News in the US as a sign of “denial, delusion, and defiance.”
“[Biden] seemed to deny where he is in the race. He seems not to grasp what is the big concern that people have.”
He described Mr Trump as an “unprecedentedly flawed candidate in so many ways” who “represents a real danger to democracy”.
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