- Biden reconsidering candidacy after leader doubts
- Schumer, Pelosi push for his withdrawal
- Polls show Biden trailing Trump in Virginia
In recent days, Joe Biden has allegedly become more open to hearing arguments that he should step down as Democratic presidential candidate after the party’s two major congressional leaders expressed doubts about his ability to defeat Donald Trump.
While insisting that he will be the party’s nominee in November, the president has allegedly begun to question harmful polling data and whether Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to replace him if he withdraws, performs better.
The signals of a possible reconsideration come after Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, forcing him to isolate for several days and canceling a campaign visit to Nevada that had been part of a push to show his candidacy was still alive.
It also comes with new polling data showing that he is two points behind Trump in Virginia, a state he won by ten points in 2020.
The Emerson College Polling/The Hill study found Trump ahead by 45% to 43%, which is within the margin of error but consistent with a slew of other polls suggesting that Biden’s popularity has dipped in swing states after his dismal performance at last month’s debate in Atlanta.
Biden’s increased openness to standing down reflects a reversal from his attitude at last week’s Nato summit in Washington when he told journalists he would only drop out if polling data showed him “there’s no way you can win.”
“No one’s saying that,” he added.
His readiness to listen to competing ideas comes after Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, reportedly advised Trump that stepping down would be in the country’s best interests, according to ABC.
Schumer dismissed the news about his meeting with Biden at the president’s Delaware residence last weekend as “idle speculation,” but accepted its contents.
The Senate leader’s intervention appears to have delayed the Democratic National Committee’s plan to hold an early electronic roll call of delegates. The roll call vote, which was set to begin next week, was intended to secure Biden’s nomination before the party convention in Chicago next month. The roll call vote has been pushed back by at least a week, giving those opposed to his candidacy more time to organize.
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, told Biden in a recent meeting that polls suggest he cannot win Trump and could jeopardize the Democrats’ prospects of recapturing the house in November, according to CNN.
Biden is believed to have pushed back throughout the meeting, claiming, as he has in previous Zoom conversations with other Democrats, that he had seen polling data indicating that he could win.
It is still being determined whether Pelosi asked the president to step down during the conversation, alleged to have occurred within the last week.
Pelosi has been widely reported as orchestrating renewed pressure on Biden to abandon his re-election bid, which has increased in recent days following a brief pause following last Saturday’s failed assassination attempt on Trump, to which the president responded with a series of authoritative statements calling for calm.
Adam Schiff, the California congressman who became the latest elected Democrat to call for Biden’s resignation on Tuesday, knows the former speaker well.
According to Politico, the speaker does not want to call on him to quit [as the Democratic nominee], but she will do everything possible to ensure it does.
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In another alarming warning for Biden, Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the president’s primary advisers and campaign co-chairman, has informed him that contributors have ceased contributing to his campaign.
A Biden adviser told the New York Times that the decision to withdraw from the race came down to three factors: polls, money, and which states were in play. According to Biden, all three were headed in the wrong path.
The reports on Biden’s receptivity come shortly after the Democratic National Committee abandoned plans to expedite a virtual roll call vote to confirm his selection this month. On Wednesday, the DNC announced it would not begin early voting in July.
