The 81-year-old has been urged by many Democrats to consider stepping down.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign has reiterated that the president is not leaving office.
Many top Democrats are urging Trump to consider that stepping aside from the 2024 election and fielding a new candidate could be the party’s best chance of avoiding a major defeat in November.
Biden has been isolating at his Delaware beach house, battling COVID-19, while his already small circle of aides before the debate debacle has become even smaller.
The president, who has maintained he can beat Republican President Donald Trump, is leaning on his family and several longtime aides as he considers whether to bow to growing pressure to drop out of the race.
Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillion acknowledged that the president’s support was “waning” but said Biden would “absolutely” continue campaigning and insisted the campaign believed there were “multiple paths” to defeat Trump.
“He’s got a lot of work to do to reassure the American people that even though he’s older, he can win,” she told MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
But she said voters concerned about Biden’s fitness to lead are not shifting to vote for Trump.
“They have doubts, but they continue to support Joe Biden,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee’s rule-making body is scheduled to meet Friday to move forward with plans to hold a virtual roll call by Aug. 7 to nominate its presidential candidate ahead of the party’s convention in Chicago later this month.
“President Biden deserves the respect of having important family conversations with members of his caucus, his colleagues in the House and Senate and Democratic leadership, and he shouldn’t have to contend with leaks and press statements,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Biden’s closest confidants in Congress and a co-chair of his campaign, told The Associated Press.
The past few days have been crucial for the president and his party, with Trump coming off a fiery Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and Democrats racing against time to consider whether Biden could step aside and field a new presidential candidate before their convention.
Amid the chaos, a majority of Democrats believe Vice President Kamala Harris herself would make a good president.
A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Policy Research finds that 6 in 10 Democrats think Harris would do a good job in the top spot.
Top Democratic officials have urged Biden to rethink his campaign, with former President Barack Obama expressing concern to allies and House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi privately telling Biden that Democrats could lose their ability to retain control of the House of Representatives if they don’t withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
Obama’s involvement was first reported by The Washington Post.
Late Thursday, Sen. Jon Tester of Montana became the second Democrat in the House – one of roughly 20 Democrats now in Congress – to call on Biden to step down, saying “Biden should not seek reelection to another term.”
Obama’s involvement was first reported by The Washington Post.
Biden, 81, tested positive for COVID-19 during a trip to Las Vegas earlier this week and is experiencing “mild symptoms” of the infection, including “general fatigue,” according to the White House.
release date: Radio News Hub
