US President Joe Biden and his campaign must either quickly prove his fitness to run for reelection on November 5 or face a more concerted effort to have him replaced with another candidate, the Washington Post has reported, citing anonymous sources.
Concerns over whether the 81-year-old veteran politician can successfully handle the presidential campaign and four more years in the Oval Office were reignited after Biden delivered a shaky performance in a televised debate with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump last Thursday. The incumbent appeared frail and seemingly lost his train of thought on multiple occasions, allowing his rival to comfortably come out on top by most accounts.
With one survey indicating that 72% of registered voters believe that Biden is unfit for office, multiple US media outlets have claimed in recent days that some Democratic lawmakers, strategists, and donors want Biden to pull out of the race.
In its article on Wednesday, the Washington Post alleged that acting on a “grim ultimatum” allegedly issued by fellow Democrats, Biden has recently called congressional leaders, arranged for a sit-down interview with ABC News on Friday, and announced several campaign events for the weekend.
According to the newspaper, citing an unnamed senior campaign adviser, Biden’s presumed failure to dispel doubts about his physical and mental acuity following last week’s debate has been perceived as a “deafening silence” within the Democratic Party. The president is now reportedly trying to make up for lost time and gain as much high-quality public exposure as he can.
The Post quoted senior Democratic strategists as warning, however, that these alleged efforts could prove too little, too late to reverse the negative trend in public and internal polling alike.
Biden has repeatedly stressed since last week’s debate that he is not leaving the race. He reportedly arranged a private meeting with more than 20 Democratic governors on Wednesday in an apparent bid to ram the message home.
According to the Post, citing unnamed sources, the Biden campaign had long operated on the assumption that enough voters would vote against Trump, making Biden their candidate of choice by default. However, some strategists within the Democratic Party are reportedly unsure that this is necessarily a given.
Biden “giving two four-minute statements and reading a teleprompter at a rally and a fundraiser” is not going to be enough to restore shaken confidence among voters, one source said.