Former US President Barack Obama is privately telling Democrats that President Joe Biden’s path to reelection has “greatly diminished,” and that the 81-year-old should “seriously consider” ending his campaign, the Washington Post has reported.
Amid a party-wide effort to convince Biden to drop out of the race, Obama had largely stayed on the sidelines. Other than posting a message of support when the president flubbed his debate with Donald Trump last month, Obama has not weighed in on Biden’s apparent cognitive decline, even though he reportedly chose not to stop his friend, actor George Clooney, from penning an op-ed calling on Biden to quit earlier this month.
In private, however, Obama “has been deeply engaged in conversations about the future of Biden’s campaign,” the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing “multiple people briefed on his thinking.”
These conversations have reportedly included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Biden this weekend that he cannot hope to beat Trump in November, according to CNN and ABC News.
“In some conversations, Obama… has told people he is concerned that the polls are moving away from Biden, that former president Donald Trump’s electoral path is expanding and that donors are abandoning the president,” the Washington Post claimed.
Obama spoke to Biden in the days after last month’s debate, as Biden insisted he was “not going anywhere.” However, Biden continued to fumble during subsequent appearances – at one point calling Vice President Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” – and “Obama’s concerns about Biden’s candidacy have only grown deeper,” the Post claimed.
While a spokesperson for Obama declined to comment on the report, the article is being treated by pundits as a de-facto public statement by the former president. “This does not show up by accident,” Fox News commentator and former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Thursday. “He has green-lighted, in my opinion as someone who has worked in press, his aides to share this with the Washington Post.”
Biden is currently in quarantine in his Delaware home, after testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. With public events off the table for the coming days, Biden’s friends and allies believe that he will withdraw his candidacy as early as this weekend, Axios reported on Thursday.