Barack Obama pressures Joe Biden to drop out of 2024 presidential race

Key Democratic donors are said to have warned “there’s not another dollar of fundraising” for Joe Biden, as Barack Obama said chances for victory are “greatly diminished”.

Senior Democrats believe Joe Biden could be persuaded to drop out of the election race as soon as this weekend, with former president Barack Obama among those fearing he cannot defeat Donald Trump.

In what loomed as a fatal blow to the US President’s candidacy, top congressional leaders privately urged the 81-year-old to quit, with their conversations leaked in what one insider described as a bid to “shame him” to walk away.

Mr Obama – who had Mr Biden as his vice president for eight years – also told allies that his chances of victory were “greatly diminished” and that he needed to consider abandoning his re-election effort, according to the Washington Post.

Barack Obama has placed pressure on Joe Biden to drop out of the race against Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

Bloomberg also reported that members of Mr Biden’s cabinet had discussed whether it was time for his advisers “to reckon with him about his increasingly dim electoral prospects”.

The senior members of the Biden administration reportedly compared notes on whether his re-election campaign had “reached a breaking point”.

Top Democratic donors also said they believed Mr Biden would have to bow out.

“Biden’s gotten the message that there’s not another dollar of fundraising,” a Wall Street party backer told the Financial Times.

“He’s just not going to be able to withstand it.”

Major donors threatened to freeze all contributions unless party leaders took stronger steps to force out Mr Biden.

“Yes, that card has been played,” a senior House Democrat told CNN.

A source close to the President told the New York Times that “reality is setting in”, while a senior Democrat added to CNN: “People see and feel the walls closing in.”

The former president remained tellingly silent about the claims, while congressional leaders Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi all refused to deny reports that they had pressured Mr Biden to quit in recent days.

As Trump prepared to be crowned as the Republican candidate at the party’s convention in Milwaukee, just days after he was shot at a campaign rally, Mr Biden was forced into isolation with Covid.

Arriving home in Delaware, the unmasked President was filmed taking about 30 seconds to climb into an SUV with the assistance of Secret Service agents.

Mr Biden is expected to isolate for the rest of the week in Delaware. His doctor, Kevin O’Connor said he was “still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms (and that) “he does not have a fever and his vital signs remain normal.”

Prior to the Covid diagnosis, he said in an interview he would reconsider his candidacy if his doctors raised concerns about a “medical condition”, having previously said that only the “Lord Almighty” could make him drop out.

He was said to be more receptive privately to the intensifying rebellion against him.

In a separate interview, the oldest president in history acknowledged questions about his age were “a legitimate thing” in the wake of his disastrous debate against Trump.

“I performed terribly,” Mr Biden said.

“People are now saying … ‘He’s 81 years old. What happens when he’s 84 years old? What happens when he’s 85 years old?’,” he added, before stopping to cough.

With supporters and critics alike watching for more gaffes that would further cripple his campaign, Mr Biden stumbled while referring to his Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, forgetting his name and instead calling him “a Black man”.

Axios reported senior Democrats believed Mr Biden would be convinced to quit as soon as this weekend, with one of his close friends saying: “I pray that he does the right thing. He’s headed that way.”

Another party insider said the President’s defiant refusal to heed internal concerns meant that he was “forcing people who like him and respect him to resort to trying to shame him”.

But top campaign aide TJ Ducklo dismissed the report as “baseless conjecture from anonymous sources”.

Other party insiders told the New York Post that Mr Biden was “f***ing stubborn” and that the Covid diagnosis would buy him time to reconsider his future.

US President Joe Biden steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base. Picture: AFP

“I do not think he drops this weekend … I also do not think he drops until he sees a plan in place for a replacement,” a source said.

It came as CNN detailed an internal party polling memo – relied upon by Ms Pelosi, the former House speaker who reportedly told Mr Biden he could not win – that “defending Biden’s fitness for office is an untenable position” for Democrats running for Congress.

Politico reported that Ms Pelosi did not want to publicly “call on him to resign”, but added that according to one of her allies: “She will do everything in her power to make sure it happens.”

Former congressman Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC’s morning TV show Morning Joe that Mr Biden watches every morning, also told the President’s aides to “do the right thing” and compel him to quit.

Originally published as Barack Obama pressures Joe Biden to drop out of 2024 presidential race