Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday tacitly joined calls for Joe Biden to end his reelection campaign, with lawmakers saying that could happen as early as this weekend, Axios reported Wednesday.
Democrats told Axios they fear Biden, 81, could have his accomplishments wiped out if he stays in the status quo and loses to Donald Trump — once a distant concern, but recent polls suggest it may soon become a reality.
And now, according to The Washington Post, the former president, whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, is telling allies that he thinks Biden has little choice but to back down and save face, both for himself and the Democratic Party.
Biden has remained defiant in public and insists he will continue to campaign, despite appearing more volatile than ever over the past three weeks after a disastrous performance at the June 27 debate and a COVID-19 diagnosis that forced him to miss events this week.
The president's campaign denied the Axios report, saying Biden was “seeking re-election” and that “unfounded speculation from anonymous sources is not a scoop.”
The turning point came on Wednesday, when Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a man with close ties to top party donors and a close aide to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, publicly called on Biden to stop campaigning for the sake of the party.
An assassination attempt on Trump this weekend temporarily muted calls for him to step down, but unfavorable polls showing Biden trailing Trump in battleground states and the looming Democratic National Convention have reignited the party's crisis.
Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are reportedly pressuring Biden to drop out of the race, suggesting that if he doesn't, a race with Biden at the top could have a devastating effect on lower-ranking Democratic candidates in the House race.
Big donors including George Clooney have also publicly and privately urged Biden to drop out of the presidential race and make way for a younger candidate they believe would do better in a general election against Trump.
One major West Coast donor has even drafted a “victory speech” that Biden could deliver as a way to exit gracefully, as he did in 2020, defend his legacy, and help his party defeat Trump, The Daily Beast exclusively reported Wednesday night.
