Former President Barack Obama has told allies in recent days that Joe Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the US president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing multiple people briefed on Obama’s thinking.
An uprising has swelled among some Democrats, analysts and voters who are concerned that Joe Biden lacks the mental acuity and physical fitness to serve a second term — worries brought to the fore by a disastrous debate performance last month against Republican challenger Donald Trump.
A report by the Associated Press said Democrats worried about President Joe Biden’s ability to win have made a renewed push for him to reconsider his reelection bid. They are using data and engaging in frank conversations to encourage Biden to reassess his re-election bid.
Representative Adam Schiff on Wednesday became the most heavyweight Democrat so far to publicly urge US President Joe Biden to step aside for another candidate to face Donald Trump.
He called on his ally to “pass the torch.”
Schiff, a key congressional powerbroker, praised Biden but told the Los Angeles Times that he doubts that the 81-year-old incumbent can defeat Trump — a threat to “the very foundation of our democracy.”
In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Schiff aired the worry gripping the party, although often in private, that questions over Biden’s age and health will doom him in the November election.
Biden has repeatedly said he intends to stay in the race, arguing that he remains the best person to defeat Trump. Polls show a tight overall contest, but with Trump pulling ahead in key swing states.
In a radio interview taped just before he tested positive for COVID-19, the octogenarian leader dismissed the idea it was too late for him to recover politically, telling Univision’s Luis Sandoval that it’s still early and that many people don’t focus on the election until September.
“All the talk about who’s leading and where and how, is kind of, you know — everything so far between Trump and me has been basically even,” he said in an excerpt of the interview released Thursday morning.
The Associated Press report also said that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have spoken privately to the president, candidly laying out the views of Democrats on Capitol Hill, including their concerns.
Late 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.”
(with inputs from Reuters, AFP and Associated Press)
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