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The future of Joe Biden’s re-election bid has been plunged into doubt again after senior Democrats warned the president that he risked losing the election against Donald Trump and hurting the party’s congressional candidates.
Democrats in Congress including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s top representative in the House, have privately expressed their concerns to Biden, it emerged on Wednesday.
Adam Schiff, another senior House Democrat who is close to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, publicly called on the president to “pass the torch”, citing “serious concerns” about whether Biden can defeat Trump in November.
Schiff on Wednesday said the “choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone” but that he believed it was time for the president “to pass the torch” and “secure his legacy of leadership” by allowing another Democrat to be the party’s nominee.
Separately, CNN reported that Pelosi told Biden it would be hard to win if he stayed in the race and that doing so could damage other Democrats’ prospects. Pelosi’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
But the US president has remained defiant. Referring to Biden’s conversations with Schumer and Jeffries, a White House spokesperson said: “The president told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.” The spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the conversation with Pelosi.
Schiff, who is running for the US Senate, was the first senior Democrat to call on Biden to abandon his re-election bid since the attempted assassination of Trump last week, which prompted many party members to pause their efforts to oust the president from the top of the ticket.
Biden was forced to cancel a speech in Nevada on Wednesday after testing positive for Covid-19. Before slowly stepping up the stairs of Air Force One to return to Delaware, Biden said: “I feel good.”
Biden trails Trump in nearly all national and swing state polls. An Associated Press poll published on Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters wanted him to step aside.
PredictIt, the online prediction market, showed the chances that Biden would be the Democratic nominee fell sharply, while the chances that vice-president Kamala Harris would be the party’s nominee rose steeply.
Biden allies are planning to hold a virtual roll call vote to renominate him ahead of August’s Democratic convention in Chicago. If successful, the pre-emptive nomination could end campaigns to remove the 81-year-old Biden.
Some party operatives had called for a virtual vote even sooner, as early as next week, while critics within the party have accused the Democratic National Committee of “stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any possible change in the Democratic ticket”.
Republicans and the Trump campaign have sought to capitalise on the Democratic infighting by projecting an image of party unity at their own national convention this week in Milwaukee.
Biden’s halting performance at a debate last month sparked panic among Democratic lawmakers, influential donors and party operatives who fear he will be unable to beat Trump at the ballot box or serve another four years in the White House.
However, many Democratic lawmakers have been reluctant to go public with their fears. A relatively small number — roughly 20 members of Congress to date — have said openly that they want Biden to step aside. Many more have privately expressed concerns and tried to pressure the president behind the scenes.
Schiff’s intervention could signal a change of approach. The comments by Schiff, a senior lawmaker who is close to several members of the Democratic leadership after almost three decades in Congress, could encourage others to go public with their concerns.
The congressman said Biden was “one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history” but added: “Our nation is at a crossroads.”
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