New pressure mounted on Joe Biden’s campaign on Thursday amid expressed concerns from Barack Obama about the November election, dimming hope among Democrats and polls which favour Donald Trump above Biden.
Some Democrats see a bleak future for the party with Joe Biden as the presidential flag bearer. A top party member confided in the BBC that many in the party believe that Biden’s stepping down is “inevitable”.
A poll on Thursday by the CBS News showed Trump five points ahead of Biden, which is the widest margin recorded in this campaign.
But Biden’s campaign took reports of high-level Democratic concern with a pinch of salt, insisting he would remain in the race.
Ex-President Obama was reported by the Washington Post to have privately stated Biden’s chances against Trump were greatly reduced, though spokespersons for the former president have declined to comment.
It followed several reports that former house speaker Nancy Pelosi and the two most senior Democrats in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, had advised Biden to consider his candidacy for the good of the party. All have rejected the reports.
But a top Democrat source told BBC News that the mood in the White House was grim, adding: “We are all waiting for the inevitable decision.”
A Democratic congressman for Washington state, Adam Smith, painted a similarly grim picture. Asked by BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight if the party was “coming to the end” of Biden’s candidacy, he replied: “That is my sense”.
“I mean, I don’t know. But without question, I think that is the direction that this is heading right now.”
Biden, who is currently in isolation in Delaware as he recovers from a Covid infection, has faced pressure from senior party officials since his woeful debate performance late last month.
Source: BBC News
