A rapidly growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers called on July 19 for President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid, even as the President insisted he’s ready to return to the campaign trail next week to counter what he called a “dark vision” laid out by Republican Donald Trump.

As more Democratic members of Congress urged him to drop out — bringing the total since his disastrous debate against Trump to nearly three dozen — Mr. Biden remained isolated at his beach house in Delaware after being diagnosed with COVID-19. The president, who has insisted he can beat Trump, was huddling with family and relying on a few longtime aides as he resisted efforts to shove him aside.

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Late Friday, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who is in a tough race for reelection, called for Mr. Biden to step aside.

Brown said in a statement that he agrees with “the many Ohioans” who have reached out to him. “I think the president should end his campaign,” he said.

And in a statement later Friday, Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., also called on Biden to drop out while saying, “there is no joy in the recognition he should not be our nominee in November. But the stakes of this election are too high.”

Mr, Biden said Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention showcased a “dark vision for the future.” The President, seeking to move the political conversation away from his fate and onto his rival’s agenda, said Friday he was planning to return to the campaign trail next week and insisted he has a path to victory over Trump, despite the worries of some of his party’s most eminent members.

“Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”

Earlier in the day, his campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillion, acknowledged “slippage” in support for the president but insisted he’s “absolutely” remaining in the race and the campaign sees “multiple paths” to beating Trump.

“We have a lot of work to do to reassure the American people that, yes, he’s old, but he can win,” she told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show. She said voters concerned about Biden’s fitness to lead aren’t switching to vote for Trump.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee’s rulemaking arm held a meeting Friday, pressing ahead with plans for a virtual roll call before Aug. 7 to nominate the presidential pick, ahead of the party’s convention later in the month in Chicago.

“President Biden deserves the respect to have important family conversations with members of the caucus and colleagues in the House and Senate and Democratic leadership and not be battling leaks and press statements,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Biden’s closest friend in Congress and his campaign co-chair, told The Associated Press.

It’s a pivotal few days for the President and his party: Trump has wrapped up an enthusiastic Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday. And Democrats, racing time, are considering the extraordinary possibility of Biden stepping aside for a new presidential nominee before their own convention.

Among the democrats expressing worries to allies about Biden’s chances were former President Barack Obama and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who has privately told Biden the party could lose the ability to seize control of the House if he doesn’t step aside.

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich called on Biden to exit the race, making him the third Senate Democrat to do so.

“By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy,” said Heinrich, who’s up for reelection.

And Reps. Jared Huffman, Mark Veasey, Chuy Garcia and Mark Pocan, representing a wide swath of the caucus, together called on Mr. Biden to step aside.

“We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy,” they wrote.

Separately, Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois wrote in an op-ed that with “a heavy heart and much personal reflection” he, too, was calling on Mr. Biden to “pass the torch to a new generation.”

Campaign officials said Mr. Biden was even more committed to staying in the race. And senior West Wing aides have had no internal discussions or conversations with the president about dropping out.

On Friday, Mr. Biden picked up a key endorsement from the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. CHC BOLD PAC said the Biden administration has shown “unwavering commitment” to Latinos and “the stakes couldn’t be higher” in this election.

But there is also time to reconsider. Mr. Biden has been told the campaign is having trouble raising money, and key Democrats see an opportunity as he is away from the campaign for a few days to encourage his exit. Among his Cabinet, some are resigned to the likelihood of him losing in November.

The reporting in this story is based in part on information from almost a dozen people who insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive private deliberations. The Washington Post first reported on Obama’s involvement.

Mr. Biden, 81, tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling in Las Vegas earlier this week and experienced “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.

White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said Friday that the president still had a dry cough and hoarseness, but that his COVID symptoms had improved.

Mr. Biden noted his illness while making a joke about Trump on social media Friday night, posting: “I’m stuck at home with COVID, so I had the distinct misfortune of watching Donald Trump’s speech to the RNC. What the hell was he talking about?”

In Congress, Democratic lawmakers have begun having private conversations about lining up behind Harris as an alternative. One lawmaker said Biden’s own advisers are unable to reach a unanimous recommendation about what he should do. More in Congress are considering joining the others who have called for Biden to drop out. Some prefer an open process for choosing a new presidential nominee.

“It’s clear the issue won’t go away,” said Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, the other Senate Democrat who has publicly said Biden should exit the race. Welch said the current state of party angst — with lawmakers panicking and donors revolting — was “not sustainable.”

However, influential Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries are sending signals of concern.

“There is of course work to be done, and that in fact is the case because we are an evenly divided country,” Jeffries said in an interview on WNYC radio Friday.

But he also said, “The ticket that exists right now is the ticket that we can win on. … It’s his decision to make.”

To be sure, many want Mr. Biden to stay in the race. But among Democrats nationwide, nearly two-thirds say Mr. Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. That sharply undercuts Biden’s post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him.

Amid the turmoil, a majority of Democrats think Vice President Kamala Harris would make a good president herself.

A poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job in the top slot. About 2 in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another 2 in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.

President Joe Biden can’t catch a break.

The president’s hopes of counter-programming the Republican National Convention were dashed Wednesday after he learned he had contracted COVID-19, forcing him to cancel an appearance before a key Latino advocacy group.

While Biden’s symptoms are mild, the diagnosis both removes him from the campaign trail and thrusts his health back into the spotlight – all at a critical moment when he is trying desperately to prove that concerns over his age and mental acuity are overblown.

Earlier Wednesday, Adam Schiff – the California congressman and Democratic candidate in that state’s US Senate race – restarted the drumbeat of allies calling for Biden to exit the race, urging him to “pass the torch.”

Then came a pair of reports from ABC News and the Washington Post that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had warned Biden in private conversations last week about the risk his continued candidacy posed.

Biden told the leaders he was the nominee of the party and planned to win, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. Still, both joined forces in the following days to lobby the Democratic National Committee against a July virtual roll call that would have cemented Biden’s nomination and effectively terminated efforts to replace him atop the ticket.

The president stoked the melodrama even more by suggesting in a BET interview taped Tuesday that he would consider dropping out of the race if new health issues emerged. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders, a defender of the president, conceded in an interview with the New Yorker that Biden had trouble completing sentences.

Even worse, Biden’s struggles played out against scenes from the GOP convention, where Republican candidate Donald Trump appeared on stage for a walk-through sporting a bandaged ear from the unsuccessful assassination attempt he survived last weekend.

Trump’s defiant, fist-pumping response to the shooting proved instantly iconic, galvanizing voices of doubt within the Republican Party behind his cause. On Tuesday night, former primary foes Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis took to the stage in Milwaukee to lay out their argument for supporting Trump’s candidacy.

The events contributed to a growing sense of two campaigns headed in opposite directions: one on the rise and the other in turmoil.

Public opinion polls underscore reason for Democrats to be concerned.

Nearly two-thirds of Biden’s own party say he should withdraw from the race, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released hours before Biden’s Covid diagnosis. Just three in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident in his ability to serve effectively as president.

Off the Rails

Biden had hoped to reverse those perceptions over a three-day trip that quickly flew off the rails.

The president originally planned to travel on Monday to Austin, Texas to deliver remarks marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. The White House had seen the address as an opportunity for Biden to link himself to previous Democratic efforts to expand protections for minorities while painting Trump as enabling new restrictions on abortion and voting rights.

But that event was scrapped in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting at the Trump rally, and a planned interview with NBC News was moved to the White House. Without the event as a backdrop, the interview devolved into a tense and combative exchange focused largely on Biden’s rhetoric and questions about his age.

“Sometime come and talk to me about what we should be talking about,” Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt at the conclusion. “OK? The issues.”

Biden resumed campaign events Tuesday with an appearance at the NAACP’s national convention, but quickly bungled the centrepiece of his speech: a new proposal to cap rent increases by corporate landlords at 5% annually.

Instead, Biden appeared to struggle to read his teleprompter, eventually saying the limit would be $55.

Medical Condition

After the event, BET News released excerpts from an interview with Biden where he appeared to open the door to reconsidering his reelection bid if doctors advised it.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said.

On Wednesday, things didn’t improve. Biden held a call with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood executive leading his fundraising effort, and was told that donations were drying up over concerns about his age, Semafor reported. Katzenberg subsequently issued a statement to the outlet calling it a “misread of a private meeting.”

The president then went to tape a radio interview with Univision but left it feeling unwell. A Covid test confirmed his infection and the president quickly spirited back to the Las Vegas airport to return to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

About the only positive news for the president was that his symptoms were mild, according to the White House: a runny nose, cough, and – appropriately enough – “general malaise.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. President Joe Biden during a stop in Las Vegas on July 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Joe Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House’s YouTube channel.

Mr. Biden was slated to speak at the event in Las Vegas Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election. Unidos U.S. President and CEO Janet Murguía told the guests that the president had sent his regrets and could not appear because he tested positive for the virus.

The president had previously been at the Original Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Las Vegas, where he was greeting diners and was scheduled to have an interview with Univision.

U.S. President Joe Biden will follow the COVID-19 guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during his visit to India for the G20 Summit and his trip to Vietnam, the White House has said.

The announcement on Tuesday came after First Lady Jill Biden, 72, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. President Biden, 80, was tested for the virus on Monday and Tuesday following his wife’s positive test, but his results were negative.

The White House said the president has tested negative twice and there is no change in his travel plans for India and Vietnam later this week.

Responding to questions from reporters, it said the president, however, is taking all the necessary precautions and following standard procedures as per the CDC guidelines.

“What I can tell you is that the president certainly is going to test on a regular cadence determined by his physician. Of course, all travellers, including the president, will test before travelling to India,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Tuesday

“So, that is certainly something that the president will do. As I mentioned, he’s following CDC guidelines,” she said.

Mr. Biden will travel to India on September 7 to participate in the G20 Summit and will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8 on the sidelines of the historic meeting, the White House announced on Friday.

In its capacity as the current president of G20, India is hosting the annual summit of the influential grouping in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.

Ahead of his trip, reporters asked Mr. Biden on Sunday whether he was looking forward to his visits to India and Vietnam.

“Yes, I am,” Mr. Biden replied.

“The CDC does not recommend testing every day after a close contact. That is their recommendation. We are going to follow the CDC guidelines. They recommend a combination of things, which is masking, testing, and monitoring for symptoms. He has no symptoms. We are going to continue to follow those guidelines. He is going to have those close consultations with his physician,” she said.

Jean-Pierre said all senior staffers test for COVID-19  anytime if they are around the president.

“We do tests. That has been the way we have moved forward for the past almost two years here. So that has not changed. No White House protocol is going to be changing, but when we do have a close engagement with the president, his senior staff and as you all know, or anyone, we do a test,” she noted.

As of now, there is no change in President Biden’s plans, she asserted.

“What I can say right now is that we do not have any changes, any updates or changes to his travel. The president tested negative yesterday. He tested negative this morning and he has no symptoms. He’s feeling good,” the press secretary said.

“Of course, he’s going to be very cautious and he’s going to wear a mask, as the CDC guidelines suggest or request. So that’s how we’re going to move forward. We just don’t have any updates and changes. We don’t have any updates in any schedule and the president’s feeling fine and we’re going to move forward,” she said.

U.S. President Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among the G20 leaders who have already confirmed their participation in the summit.

PM Modi will hand over the baton of the G20 Presidency to Brazilian President Lula on September 10.

Brazil will formally assume the G20 Presidency on December 1.

The G20 member countries represent around 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).