In Brief
- Former President Barack Obama believes Joe Biden should consider withdrawing his presidential candidacy, according to sources.
- Obama feels Biden’s chances of winning the election have weakened.
- Biden is undergoing a soul-searching process amid pressure to withdraw, especially after a poor TV debate.
- New York Times reports that Biden is bracing for electoral defeat.
Late Thursday evening, New York Times reported that Biden has accepted, according to sources, that he may not win the election and may need to withdraw from the campaign.
The paper cites four anonymous sources said to be close to the 81-year-old president.
The Biden campaign hit back late Friday night against the paper’s claims, calling them “completely false.”
– The president has stated that he is running for office, and that is the end of the story, said Cedric Richmond of the Biden campaign to MSNBC.
Barack Obama has recently told allies that he believes Joe Biden should seriously consider whether he is fit to be a presidential candidate, Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources.
– You look foolish
According to the paper, the former president believes that Biden’s chance of winning the presidential election in November has significantly weakened.
A source told Reuters on Thursday evening that Biden is in a “soul-searching” process due to the pressure to withdraw his candidacy.
– I know he is in a soul-searching process. He is seriously considering this, said a source to the news agency.
Several top Democrats believe he could withdraw as a presidential candidate as early as this weekend, according to the American news site Axios.
Party leaders believe he can neither win the election nor deliver a congressional majority, sources told the news site.
In the past two weeks, Biden has been under immense pressure to withdraw, particularly following the disastrous TV debate against Donald Trump and the subsequent ABC interview.
After the debate, where many felt the 81-year-old appeared old and dull with at times incoherent sentences, Obama defended him.
– Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know that, Obama wrote in a post on X – and added:
– But this presidential election is a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary people all their life and someone who only cares about themselves. Yesterday does not change that.
– Never going back
Obama has only spoken to Biden once since the debate, and in conversations with others, he has made it clear that only the president himself should make decisions about his candidacy, according to Washington Post.
He has reportedly emphasized that he is concerned about protecting Biden and his legacy.
On Wednesday night, Biden had to cancel a planned campaign speech and return home to quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. He has mild symptoms and will be working from home, the White House stated.