A series of overlapping warnings to Joe Biden that he faces defeat if he continues his reelection bid are finally resonating with the president as he mulls what’s next for him and his party at his Delaware beach house.
With former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries sharing insights into Biden’s declining support on Capitol Hill and in the polls, the president must now decide whether to heed the grim advice as he battles COVID-19 in Rehoboth Beach.
Asked if the information is getting to Biden, a House Democrat close to him told DailyMail.com: “I think so and I’m going to leave it at that.”
A Washington Post report that former President Barack Obama was telling allies that Biden’s path to victory was greatly diminished only added to the frenzy around Biden’s next move, though a former Senate leadership aide who knows all the players involved told DailyMail.com that it was Pelosi who left her mark on the latest pressure campaign more than the former president.
“He never got into the details of policy when he was president. Why would he change that now? He knows full well that Biden harbors some kind of resentment for having urged (Hillary) Clinton to run in his place” in 2016, the source said.
President Joe Biden is holed up in his Delaware beach house battling COVID-19. Leaders have brought him grim data from the polls and one House Democrat has said the data is coming in.
A series of leaks about Pelosi’s warnings to Biden — she even shared with him detailed polling data showing he can’t beat Donald Trump — made it “obvious that she is central to this whole soap opera,” the aide said. The latest demonstration was Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) public call for Biden to “pass the torch.” Pelosi installed Schiff to lead the Intelligence Committee, his former post, and endorsed his protégé in his Senate primary.
“Anyone who knows their relationship would have reason to believe that he did so only after consulting with her,” the aide said. The internal opposition and late hour have prompted a second look at Vice President Kamala Harris — despite her failure to win more public approval than Biden — as at least an opportunity to try a new gambit after polls have barely budged for months. “We’re already headed for disaster,” the longtime aide said.
Another blow landed Thursday with the leak of a four-page letter to Biden written by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), another prominent Democrat, that compared him to veteran Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, who was left on the mound too long during the 2003 American League Championship Series against the rival New York Yankees.
That came before Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said it was time for Biden to “pass the torch” despite being “an incredible president” for the “good of the country.”
“Democrats need to come together and deliver their strongest team to the American people in this election,” he said. saying in a sentence.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 84, shared grim polling data with President Biden, and her fingerprints are all over other calls for Biden to go, observers say
Biden often praises Pelosi, to whom he awarded the Medal of Freedom, at public events. The former House speaker remains a force in his party.
A source familiar with Obama’s thinking sought to downplay some of the reports of a pressure campaign emanating from him, without outright denying it. “He continues to see his primary role as being a sounding board and adviser to President Biden, as they have done for many years,” the source told DailyMail.com.
“He believes Joe Biden has been an exceptional president and is protective of him both personally and of the strong and historic achievements of the Biden administration,” the source said.
But after his defiant remarks and his closing ranks following his disastrous debate performance, there are signs that Biden, 81, is reckoning with the bleak political landscape ahead.
“His soul-searching is going on, I know that for a fact. He’s thinking about this very seriously,” one source told Reuters. Biden is “resting” and “reflecting” in Delaware, said Senator Chris Coons, co-chair of his home state campaign.
The reason for this injury is the Republican unified convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is regarded as a hero who survived a bullet from a would-be assassin. His son Eric Trump told DailyMail.com and a group of journalists awaiting Trump’s speech at the convention that he would describe him as a “fighter” who “will stand up after being shot in the face.”
Biden’s reassessment comes as a series of public appearances since the debate have put Biden’s initial claim that he had a “bad day” to the test. While he has avoided similar catastrophes, he has continued to garble sentences, speak softly, give halting answers in interviews and leave out names, angering some of his allies who want more than a passable performance to take on Trump.
Pelosi has told some members of her caucus that Biden can be persuaded to step back “fairly soon,” she said. Washington Post Following earlier reports, the move is expected to take place as early as this weekend.
Democratic Party insiders know that every day counts, with Donald Trump delivering his convention speech in prime time on Thursday and the rush to try to stem the bleeding before the Democratic convention in Chicago next month.
Some of the key moves surprisingly stayed out of the press for days, including Schumer’s extraordinary trip to Biden’s beach house in Delaware to meet with him.
“The dynamic has clearly changed over the last week. Things froze, of course, during the terrible shooting of President Trump. Things froze a little bit. They picked up,” former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki observed on MSNBC.
Still, Psaki, who rose to prominence during the Obama campaign and administration (the source of some of Biden’s staunchest critics), said: “My understanding, after talking to people close to him, is that he hasn’t made up his mind yet.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates denied A breathless report that Biden would announce his decision to withdraw from the nomination as early as this weekend.
“This fan fiction is wrong,” she posted.