2024-07-20 04:53:05
The pressure on US President Joe Biden regarding his re-candidacy continues to grow, and with it, speculation that he might soon withdraw from the re-election fight. In some media, anonymous statements by representatives of the Democratic Party appear, according to which the end of Biden’s candidacy seems inevitable, but his campaign staff rejects this.
“President Joe Biden’s political world is collapsing,” NBC News wrote Thursday night. “Leading allies have publicly or privately called on him to withdraw from the campaign. Large financial contributions are disappearing… Members of his own election operation have already declared that he has no chance of winning,” she summarized the situation.
Amid growing doubts about his fitness, Biden insists he can defeat his Republican rival and predecessor Donald Trump in the November election. He released a new statement today saying he is looking forward to returning to campaigning next week once he completes his covid-19 self-isolation. One of his closest advisers previously said Biden’s staff sees “multiple paths” to victory.
But speculation about the future of the 81-year-old president’s candidacy was heightened by the end of the week after US media reported that Democratic Party leaders, including former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, hinted behind the scenes that he should give up the campaign.
“We’re close to the end,” an unnamed person close to Biden told NBC News. “I don’t know how he could get away with these persistent attacks,” the Politico website quoted a veteran Democratic adviser as saying. News website Axios previously reported that more senior Democrats now believe the president will bow to pressure and withdraw from the election, possibly as early as the weekend.
More and more lawmakers of the Democratic Party are publicly urging him to do so, who fear, among other things, that Biden’s candidacy will harm them in the congressional elections held in the fall at the same time as the presidential elections. Another candidate for the White House is now openly requested by three dozen of the total of about 260 Democrats in Congress, and on Thursday, the second senator, Jon Tester from the state of Montana, joined them.
Seven other members of the House, including longtime congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, as well as a third senator, came forward with the same request on Friday. Top Democrats in Congress continue to remain cautious in their public statements. The leader of the party in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, during an appearance in New York today, repeatedly faced questions about his support for Biden, but avoided a clear answer, The New York Times reported.
The storm within the president’s party less than four months before the election represents an unprecedented turn in the campaign. Just a month ago, Biden, as the winner of the Democratic primaries, was fearlessly aiming for the nomination for president, but everything changed in the televised debate with Trump at the end of June. In it, the oldest president in the history of the United States had trouble speaking intelligibly at times, fueling concerns about his fitness to serve as head of state.
What would follow if he did indeed vacate the seat for the Democratic nominee is unclear. The delegates he won during the primaries could, under such a development, support someone else in the vote on the nominee. The most likely scenario is that Biden would be quickly replaced by his vice president, Kamala Harris, but it is not the only option. Some Biden supporters warn that his exit from the campaign would cause even more chaos.
It is not yet clear when the Democrats will officially select their nominee. The party’s nominating convention takes place from August 19 to 22, but the party has been planning to hold the delegate vote earlier for a long time. The reason was the state of Ohio’s requirement that US presidential candidates be registered there by August 7. Ohio has since moved the deadline to the end of August, but the Democratic leadership is still insisting on a vote before the convention.
The matter was the topic of Friday’s meeting of the party’s organizational committee, which, according to The Washington Post, did not reach a final decision. The commission agreed to return to the topic during the following week and reiterated that delegates should vote on the nomination no later than August 7.
Biden is watching everything from his home state of Delaware, where he is self-isolating after testing positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday. According to some behind-the-scenes statements, in recent days he has been more open to thinking about ending the campaign, but publicly insists on its continuation. One of his closest allies and Senator Chris Coons said in an interview that the head of the White House is pondering the question of “who is the best candidate” to fight Trump.
“We know that Joe Biden has to work to reassure the American people that he is playing to win,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said today. According to her, the president “definitely” remains in the fight for re-election and sees “multiple paths” to victory. They will resume their activities in the campaign next week, the adviser said.