President Joe Biden walks to his car after stepping off of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 17, 2024. Biden is returning to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID-19.
| Photo Credit: AP

US President Joe Biden is expected to make a major announcement on his re-election bid, with several senior Democratic leaders suggesting that he leave the race following his disastrous debate performance, a failed assassination attempt on his rival Donald Trump, his poor health, and falling poll numbers, according to media reports.

“Several people close to President Biden said on Thursday that they believe he has begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win in November and may have to drop out of the race, bowing to the growing demands of many anxious members of his party,” The New York Times reported.

Also read | Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Democrats make a fresh push for Joe Biden to reconsider 2024 race ahead of convention

Mr. Biden, 81, is spending time at his Delaware residence in isolation after he was tested positive for COVID-19. Media reports said that top leaders of the Democratic party, including former president Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have asked him to leave the presidential race, in the absence of which the party risks losing the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“People close to top Democrats said Thursday that it now appeared it was a matter of when—not if—Biden bows out of the presidential race. In the past day or so, former President Barack Obama has told friends who have called him that Biden’s path to victory is narrow, according to people familiar with the calls,” The NYT report said.

The Washington Post reported Thursday night that Ms. Pelosi has stepped up her behind-the-scenes role in working to persuade the president to bow out of campaign. Obama has said that he has a very slight chance of winning the race.

According to The Hill, Vice President Kamala Harris has started looking for options for her running mate. The three being talked about right now are Senator Mark Kelly, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.

Most of the media reports said that Mr. Biden’s announcement on his re-election bid might come after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“One of the people close to him warned that the president had not yet made up his mind to leave the race after three weeks of insisting that almost nothing would drive him out. But another said that ‘reality is setting in’, and that it would not be a surprise if Mr Biden made an announcement soon endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement,” The NYT reported.

U.S. President Joe Biden, in a letter to congressional Democrats, continued to stand firm against calls for him to drop his candidacy and called for an “end” to the intra-party drama that has torn apart Democrats about whether he should stay in the race.

In the two-page letter, Mr. Biden wrote that “the question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end”. He stressed that the party has “one job” — defeating presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in November.

“We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election,” Mr. Biden said in the letter. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.” The letter was sent from the campaign to Democratic lawmakers as they return to Washington following the July 4 recess.

Should Biden stay or go?

Deeply torn over Mr. Biden’s candidacy, Democratic lawmakers return to Washington at a pivotal moment as they decide whether to work to revive his campaign or edge out the party leader, a make-or-break time for his reelection and their own political futures.

Anxiety is running high as top-ranking Democratic lawmakers are joining calls for Mr. Biden to step aside after his dismal debate performance and defiant response to the uproar.

At the same time, some of the President’s most staunch supporters insist there is no one better than Mr. Biden to beat Mr. Trump.

As lawmakers weigh whether Mr. Biden should stay or go, there appear to be no easy answers in sight. It is a tenuous and highly volatile juncture for the president’s party. Democrats who have worked alongside Mr. Biden for years — if not decades — and cherished his life’s work on policy priorities are now entertaining uncomfortable questions about his political future. And it’s unfolding as Mr. Biden hosts world leaders for the NATO summit this week in Washington.

Time is not on their side, almost a month from the Democratic National Convention and just a week before Republicans gather in Milwaukee to renominate Mr. Trump as their presidential pick. Many Democrats are arguing the attention needs to be focused instead on the former president’s felony conviction in the hush money case and pending federal charges in his effort to overturn the 2020 election.

It’s what Mr. Biden himself might call an inflection point. As he defiantly says he will only step aside if the Lord almighty comes and tells him to, Democrats in the House and Senate are deciding how hard they want to fight the president to change course, or if they want to change course at all.

Deepening divide

In an effort to “get on the same page”, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is convening lawmakers for private meetings before he shows his own preference, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it. He plans to gather Democrats on Monday whose bids for reelection are most vulnerable.

But a private call on July 7 of some 15 top House committee members exposed the deepening divide as at least four more Democrats — Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state and Rep. Mark Takano of California — privately said Mr. Biden should step aside.

Mr. Nadler, as the most senior ranking member on the call, was the first person to speak up and say that Mr. Biden should step aside, according to a person familiar with the call who was granted anonymity to discuss it. He did so aware of his seniority and that it would allow others to join him.

Many others on the call raised concerns about Mr. Biden’s capability and chance of winning re-election, even if they stopped short of saying Mr. Biden should step out of the race.

Still other members, including Rep. Maxine Waters of California and Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, both leaders in the Congressional Black Caucus, spoke forcefully in support of Mr. Biden, as did Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

And several lawmakers appeared frustrated that leadership was not providing direction or a path forward, according to people familiar with the call. One Democratic lawmaker said regardless of the decision, the situation has to “end now”, one of the people said.

Mr. Neal said afterward that the bottom line is Mr. Biden defeated Mr. Trump in 2020 and “he’ll do it again in November”.

The upheaval also is testing a new generation of leaders, headed by Mr. Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Both New Yorkers have refrained from publicly directing lawmakers on a path forward as they balance diverse opinions in their ranks.

Behind the scenes is Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who continues to field calls from lawmakers seeking advice about the situation, and is widely viewed as the one to watch for any ultimate decision on Mr. Biden’s future because of her proximity to the president and vote-counting skills in party politics.

Ms. Pelosi spoke up last week, saying Mr. Biden’s debate performance raised “legitimate” questions he needed to answer, but she has remained supportive of the president. And Biden called her last week when he reached out to other party leaders.

When Biden’s prime-time ABC interview on Friday appeared to do little to calm worried Democrats, and some said made the situation worse, Ms. Pelosi stepped forward to publicly praise Mr. Biden on social media as a “great President who continues to deliver for America’s kitchen table.” She added, “and we’re not done yet!” Schumer has kept a lower profile throughout the ordeal but will convene Democratic senators Tuesday for their weekly lunch when senators are certain to air many views.

Another Democrat, Sen. Alex Padilla of California, said it was “time to quit the hand-wringing and get back to door knocking”. He spoke with Mr. Biden over the weekend, and urged his campaign to “let Joe be Joe”.

“Given the debate, I think the campaign has no choice,” he said on Sunday, explaining that Mr. Biden needs to hold town halls and unscripted events to show voters “the Joe Biden I know, and that most people in American have come to grow and love”.

Bigger impact on the election

While some deep-pocketed donors may be showing discomfort, strategists working on House and Senate races said they posted record fundraising as donors view congressional Democrats as a “firewall” and last line of defence against Mr. Trump.

House Democrats have had some of their better fundraising days yet, including a $3 million haul on Friday night after the debate at an event with former President Barack Obama and Jeffries in New York City. That’s on top of $1.3 million that rolled into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the debate and its immediate aftermath.

Senate Democrats are also seeing a “surge” of support, according to a national Democrat with knowledge of Senate races.

As Democratic candidates campaign alongside Biden, the advice has been to focus on building their own brands and amplifying the way the work that’s done in Congress affects their local districts.

U.S. President Joe Biden won enough delegates on March 12 to seal the Democratic Party’s nomination, with a face-off against former President Donald Trump looming in what would be the first U.S. presidential election rematch in nearly 70 years.

Mr. Biden needed 1,968 delegates to win the nomination and Edison Research said he passed that number on Tuesday night as results began to come in from the primary contest in Georgia, ahead of expected results from Mississippi, Washington state, the Northern Mariana Islands and Democrats living abroad.

Trump was expected to clinch the Republican Party’s nomination later on Tuesday as four states held contests, including Georgia, the battleground where Trump faces criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 results.

The outcome is essentially predetermined, after Trump’s last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign following Trump’s dominant performance last week on Super Tuesday, when he won 14 of 15 state contests.

Mr. Biden, meanwhile, faced only token opposition in the Democratic primary campaign, though liberal activists frustrated by his support for Israel’s war in Gaza have convinced a sizable minority of Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in protest.

Both men have already turned their attention to the Nov. 5 general election, holding dueling rallies in Georgia on Saturday.

In Rome, Georgia, Trump, 77, again repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent and accused the Fulton County attorney, Fani Willis, of prosecuting him for political reasons. He also attacked Mr. Biden for failing to stem the flow of migrants at the U.S. southern border, an issue he intends to keep front and center throughout the campaign, as he did in 2020.

The 81-year-old Mr. Biden, appearing in Atlanta, sounded the same themes he voiced during his energetic State of the Union speech to Congress on Thursday, warning that Trump poses a danger to U.S. democracy and criticizing the former president’s heated rhetoric about migrants.

The Biden campaign launched a more aggressive phase on Friday, announcing Mr. Biden would tour several battleground states amid a $30 million ad buy. The campaign said it raised $10 million in the 24 hours after Biden’s State of the Union speech, adding to Democrats’ financial edge over Republicans.

As of Monday, Trump needed 139 additional delegates to reach the 1,215 required to secure the Republican presidential nomination, according to Edison Research. There are 161 delegates at stake on Tuesday in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington state.

VOTERS UNENTHUSIASTIC

The last repeat presidential matchup took place in 1956, when Republican President Dwight Eisenhower defeated former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat, for the second time.

This year, voters have expressed little enthusiasm for a repeat of the bitter 2020 election, with Reuters/Ipsos public polls showing both Biden and Trump are unpopular with the majority of voters.

Trump’s myriad criminal charges — he faces 91 felony counts across four separate indictments — could harm his standing among the suburban, well-educated voters whose support he’s historically struggled to garner.

He is scheduled to become the first former American president to go on trial in a criminal case on March 25 in New York, where he faces charges he falsified business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star.

The most serious case against him is generally thought to be the federal indictment in Washington, D.C., accusing him of plotting to reverse the 2020 election. But the case is on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s claim of presidential immunity, and it is unclear whether a trial can take place before Election Day.

Mr. Biden has been dogged by the perception among a majority of voters that he is too old to serve a second four-year term, though allies believe his fiery State of the Union address may serve to counter that notion.

The ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, where an influx of migrants has overwhelmed the system, is another weakness for Mr. Biden. He has sought to transfer the blame to Trump after the former president urged congressional Republicans to kill a bipartisan border security bill that would have stepped up enforcement.

The economy, as always, will be a central campaign issue. Mr. Biden has presided over an expanding economy, with inflationary pressure easing and stocks hitting all-time highs. But polls show Americans unwilling to credit the president and frustrated about high prices of items like food in the wake of the pandemic.