2024-07-18 18:28:05
For three days, after the assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, calls from Democrats for Joe Biden to withdraw from the election ceased. However, his influential party members are still convinced that he has no chance of defeating Trump and are increasing the pressure on him.
Challenges are already coming from the top of the Democratic Party. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and a very influential member of the House of Representatives from California, Adam Schiff, gradually persuaded Biden to consider the candidacy. So far, he is the highest-ranking Democrat who has publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the campaign.
The president officially rejects accusations that he is not medically fit for another four-year mandate. He reiterates that he’s fit and that if anyone can beat Trump, it’s him, despite polls showing otherwise. He responded to calls to withdraw from the election campaign by saying that with age comes wisdom.
CNN, however, quotes one of the election strategists who said that in private – without television cameras and microphones on – the president thinks a little differently. “He listens to others, he is not as dismissive as he is in public. I don’t know what conclusion he will eventually reach, but he definitely listens to what anyone tells him,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The main American media have confirmed from their sources that the former head of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, told Biden bluntly in a telephone conversation that he will not defeat Trump and that, moreover, by staying in the campaign, he threatens the Democratic majority in the Senate. Democrats now hold 51 seats in the 100-member House, but are in danger of losing their narrow control of the Senate in the November 5 presidential election.
When reporters pressed Pelosi for comment last week, she responded diplomatically: “It’s up to the president to decide whether he’s going to run. We all encourage him to make a decision because time is running out.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also called Biden and told him he’d better not run, according to ABC television. Schumer’s spokesperson did not deny the report, which ABC says means the politician actually told the president. Congressman Adam Schiff said Wednesday that he has “serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Moreover, since the end of June, it seems that everything is working against Biden. In the televised debate with Trump, he struggled to express himself, had outages and could not be understood. Then some sponsors of the Democratic Party began to call on him to withdraw from the campaign. On Sunday, an assassin slightly wounded Trump at a campaign rally, which many political scientists described as an event that rather helped the Republican.
The AP released a new poll on Thursday showing that two-thirds of Democratic voters want someone other than Biden to run. According to the survey, he is behind Trump not only nationally, but also in all key states with the exception of Virginia.
“The Democratic candidate would have a chance to succeed against Trump, but they would have to do it quickly and it would have to be a clear candidate with clear support for the party. If the Democrats start arguing about who will replace Biden, they will lose even without him,” the Americanist told Aktuálně.cz Jakub Lepš.
Meanwhile, the White House announced on Thursday that the president has contracted the coronavirus and will therefore limit his work schedule in the coming days. In the video footage, it can be seen that it is very strenuous for him to climb the stairs to the plane.
A final decision on who will stand against Trump must be made no later than August 22 at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago.
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