The pressure campaign against US President Joe Biden from within his own party has reached such intensity that the 81-year-old may suspend his reelection campaign in a matter of days, Axios has reported.
Biden abruptly canceled a campaign event in Las Vegas on Wednesday due to a Covid-19 diagnosis and returned to his home in Delaware to recuperate. For the embattled president, the retreat offered no respite from the rising tide of voices urging him to end his campaign.
Aside from those publicly calling for him to drop out – among them nearly two dozen Democrat lawmakers and a group of top donors, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have both reportedly contacted Biden and told him that he cannot beat former President Donald Trump in this November’s presidential election.
Some of Biden’s friends and associates believe that the president may bow out of the race as soon as this weekend, Axios reported on Thursday. “The president is being told that if he stays in, former President Trump could win in a landslide and wipe away Biden’s legacy and Democrats’ hopes in November,” the outlet wrote, citing anonymous Democrats.
Biden has publicly insisted that he will stay in the race, barring the sudden diagnosis of a medical condition. However, the president’s party has called on his friends and political allies to “shame him” into quitting, one “well-known Democrat close to the West Wing” alleged.
“His choice is to be one of history’s heroes, or to be sure of the fact that there’ll never be a Biden presidential library,” one of Biden’s friends told Axios. “I pray that he does the right thing. He’s headed that way.”
Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden out of the race, according to an Associated Press poll published on Wednesday. Sources within the party told Axios that they expect a slew of further negative polls if Biden is nominated at the Democratic National Convention in August, and that Democrats in Congress will see their chances of reelection dragged down by association with the president.
The campaign to force Biden out of the race began immediately after his CNN-hosted debate with Trump last month. Biden appeared confused and struggled to complete sentences during the primetime showdown, his voice weak and his mouth hanging agape. Liberal media outlets erupted with questions about Biden’s mental acuity and possible cognitive impairment, which before the debate had almost exclusively been voiced by conservatives.
Trump has risen in most polls since surviving an assassination attempt on Saturday, and currently holds a four-point advantage over Biden, according to an Emerson College survey published on Thursday. The Emerson poll also showed Trump leading Biden in seven crucial swing states that will decide the outcome of the election.