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Joe Biden has reportedly become more ‘receptive’ to hearing arguments that he should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate. This is a stark contrast from earlier when he believed he was the only one who could beat Trump. The change comes as senior leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama signalled that it’s time for him to go read more
 "Why Joe Biden quitting White House race is becoming more and more of a possibility")
US President Joe Biden deboards Air Force One, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. He is currently self-isolating after contracting COVID. The US president is now reportedly more amenable to hearing arguments for him to step away from the race. Reuters
He earlier had claimed that only a heavenly intervention or a significant medical condition would persuade him to drop out of the race. However, it seems that the building pressure from within his party is making Joe Biden rethink his decision.
The US president, who is currently self-isolating in Delaware after testing positive for COVID, is now reportedly taking calls to step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate seriously. As one person close to Biden said: “His soul searching is actually happening, I know that for a fact. He’s thinking about this very seriously.”
The pressure mounts
Ever since the presidential debate debacle on June 27 — where Biden was seen at moments freezing on stage or mumbling incoherently — there have been calls for the US president to step aside from the race.
It started on July 2 with Lloyd Doggett, the Texas Congressman, saying: “Recognising that, unlike [Donald] Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”
Less than two weeks later, the first US senator stepped forward to publicly ask Biden to drop out. Peter Welch, of Vermont, told the Washington Post: “We need him to put us first, as he has done before,” he said. “I urge him to do it now.”
The calls for Biden to step away from the race have only grown louder since, and it’s not just from within the party. Donors and supporters of the Democratic party have also called on Joe Biden to drop out of the race. George Clooney, perhaps one of the most prominent fundraisers of the party, wrote in the New York Times that Biden could not beat time. His article was titled: “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
Another Hollywood star and fundraiser, Michael Douglas, also told the BBC he was “worried” about Biden’s electoral chances.
Megadonors have also been asking for Biden to step aside and let another take a go at Trump in the November 5 election. A CNBC report said that in early July, 75 wealthy Democratic political donors met on a Zoom call to discuss the path forward. Of them, only one believed that Biden should remain in the race. The others were clear that they believed Biden needed to drop out of the race if the party wanted to defeat Trump in November.
Also read: As donors pressurise Biden to drop out, what happens to the millions he raised?
Since then, donors who fund either the Biden campaign, his allied political action committees or the party at large have launched a lobbying campaign aimed at senior Democrats in both the House and Senate. Some have laid down blunt terms: If Biden refused to drop out, they would not be giving money to help his re-election until polls showed that he was a clear favourite to beat Trump.
Big voices chime in
After keeping silent for a while, it seems the big guns of the Democrats are now speaking out, putting pressure on the 81-year-old commander-in-chief to reconsider his position in the race.
On Wednesday, ABC News revealed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had personally told Biden last Saturday that he could best serve the party by getting out of the race. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told him the same. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, told the president that polling showed he could not beat former President Donald Trump and that staying in the race would destroy Democrats’ prospects of winning back control of the House.
However, with Biden remaining defiant, the three leaders reportedly let word of their views leak to the press. When confronted with reports of their private conversations with Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and Jeffries all refused to deny the accuracy of such news stories.
On Thursday came the biggest hit of them all. The Washington Post reported that former US President Barack Obama had “told allies in recent days that President Biden’s path to victory has greatly diminished and he thinks the president needs to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy.” When asked about this revelation, a spokesman for Obama declined to deny it.
Earlier when asked about Biden, Obama had said that the future of Biden’s candidacy is a decision for the president to make.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has also scrapped its plans to formally confirm Biden as the party’s nominee in a virtual roll call vote next week.
Biden’s rethink
And it seems now that the pressure from the leadership and donors has made Biden, who until now was steadfast in his decision to continue in the race, do rethink. A New York Times report said that he has become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his re-election bid.
The media outlet reported that while Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, he has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data and has asked questions about how Vice President Kamala Harris could win.
One person close to the president told the Times that it would be wrong to call him receptive to the idea of dropping out but that he “is willing to listen.”
A Democratic congressional aide was also of the same opinion. In a Reuters report, he said, “It feels like it’s a matter of … when, not if.”
Even Axios reported that several “top Democrats privately tell us the rising pressure of party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade President Biden to decide to drop out of the presidential race, as soon as this weekend.”
However, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said that the campaign was moving ahead. “He is not wavering on anything,” Fulks said. “The president has made his decision. I don’t want to be rude, but I don’t know how many more times we can answer that.”
Uncertain future
Whether or not, Biden heeds the calls of his fellow party members is left to be seen. However, one thing is certain: the future is uncertain for the Democratic Party.
The data already reveals that the support for Biden has shifted away since the debate, and they now show the president trailing in the northern battleground states. Moreover, Donald Trump is expected to receive a huge bump in the polls following the assassination attempt and his being officially nominated as the Republican candidate.
But what happens if Biden follows the advice of the Democrats and drops out of the race now? The laws of the DNC say that the only way to replace Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket at this stage in the campaign cycle is if he agrees to drop out voluntarily, or if he dies or suffers a “disability.”
And if he does, the pledged delegates could cast their ballots for a new candidate. According to the DNC rules, if no candidate won a majority on that first ballot, then more than 700 “superdelegates” could join in subsequent votes. In such a case, the likeliest alternative is Vice President Kamala Harris.
We will have to wait and see if Biden goes the way of former US President Lyndon B Johnson or does he believe that he truly is the only one that can beat Trump.
With inputs from agencies
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English (US) ·