Joe Biden’s campaign faced challenges on Thursday as Barack Obama reportedly expressed concerns about the presidential election, Democrats were in low mood and polls showed Donald Trump ahead further pressure.
Senior Democratic insiders paint a bleak picture. A senior official told the BBC that many in the party believed Biden’s ouster was “inevitable”.
A poll conducted by CBS News on Thursday, the BBC’s US partner, showed him trailing Trump by 5 percentage points – the largest gap ever in this campaign.
According to the “Washington Post” report, Obama privately said that Biden’s chances of winning have been greatly reduced. The former president declined to comment, while the Biden campaign said all reports were baseless.
Ahead of the release of the polls and briefings on Obama, U.S. media suggested that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the two highest-ranking Democrats in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, had suggested Biden is considering running for the good of the party. All rejected the reports.
A Democratic source told BBC News the mood in Washington was grim: “We are all waiting for the inevitable decision.”
Others say the question now is no longer whether Biden will lose to Trump, but how big the loss will be.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., also added to the sentiment. Asked in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight program whether Mr Biden’s candidacy was “coming to an end” for the party, he said: “That’s my feeling. I mean, I have no idea.
Biden has faced a difficult few weeks since his poor performance in the first presidential debate late last month. He is currently in quarantine in Delaware, where he recovered from the coronavirus on Wednesday.
On the same day, US media reported that Senate Majority Leader Schumer and House Democratic Leader Jeff Rees both told Biden last week that their colleagues were “worried” that his troubles would spread to them.
Schumer said the reports were “unfounded speculation,” while Jeffries said his report was “a private conversation that will remain private.”
Meanwhile, CNN reported that Mrs. Pelosi told Biden that polls showed he could not win. She later slammed the report as a “feeding frenzy” but did not deny having spoken to Mr Biden.
On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that Obama told several allies that his former Vice President Joe Biden must seriously consider whether his candidacy is still viable.
Meanwhile, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland wrote to Mr. Biden, likening him to a baseball pitcher at the end of his career, saying retirement was “nothing,” The New York Times reported Shameful,” “Grateful to Biden beyond words,” “When your arms get tired, get out of the crowd.”
TJ Ducklo, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, blasted reports of big shot concerns as “baseless conjecture from anonymous sources.”
“Joe Biden is his party’s nominee,” he wrote on the X, “and he’s running for re-election.”
Deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said Biden “will not waver on anything. 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 this.”
Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said Thursday that Mr. Biden had mild upper respiratory symptoms related to the coronavirus but no fever.
The White House said he was expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in the United States on Wednesday.
