Former president Barack Obama has privately expressed concerns to Democrats about President Joe Biden's candidacy, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi privately warned Biden that Democrats could lose the ability to seize control of the House if he didn't step away from the 2024 race, according to several people familiar with the sensitive internal matters.
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Pelosi also showed Biden polling that she argued shows he likely can't defeat Republican Donald Trump, according to two of the people, who insisted on anonymity to discuss such matters.
Obama has not spoken directly to Biden, two other people said. He has conveyed to allies that Biden needs to consider the viability of his campaign but has also made clear that the decision is one Biden needs to make.
Time racing, Democrats at the highest levels are making a critical push for Biden to reconsider his re-election bid, as unease grows at the White House and within the campaign at a fraught moment for the president and his party.
Biden has insisted he's not backing down, adamant he's the candidate who beat Trump before and will do it again. Pressed about reports that Biden might be softening to the idea of leaving the race, his deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said on Thursday: "He is not wavering on anything."
In recent days the president has become more committed to staying in the race, according to another person familiar with the matter.
But influential Democrats from the highest levels of the party apparatus, including congressional leadership headed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are sending signals of concern. Some Democrats hope Biden will assess the trajectory of the race and his legacy over the coming days.
Using mountains of data showing Biden's standing could wipe out the ranks of Democrats in Congress, frank conversations in public and private and now the president's own time off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID-19, many Democrats see an opportunity to encourage a reassessment.
If Democrats are seriously preparing the extraordinary step of replacing Biden and shifting Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket, this weekend will be critical to changing the president's mind, other people familiar with the private conversations said.
One said it's now or never ahead of a planned virtual roll call to nominate the party's choice in early August, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Biden, in a radio interview taped just before he tested positive for COVID-19, dismissed the idea it was too late for him to recover politically, telling Univision's Luis Sandoval it's still early and many people don't focus on the November 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.
While the tensions over Biden's ability to carry on a winning campaign subsided some, particularly after last weekend's Trump assassination attempt and as the Republican National Convention is underway in Milwaukee, Democrats know they have limited time to resolve the party turmoil after the president's faltering debate performance last month.
Australian Associated Press
