Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited President Joe Biden at his Rehoboth Beach home last weekend and urged him to drop his presidential bid, multiple sources now say.
The hosts of the Ruthless podcast said during a taping at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday that Schumer had been driven to Biden’s home in Delaware and told the president to leave.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reported A similar story Wednesday night called it “a direct one-on-one conversation” and said the Senate’s top Democrat “made a strong case that it would be better if Biden dropped out of the race.”
But Schumer’s office continues to cast doubt on whether the conversation went that way.
“Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden, the information is pure speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday,” a spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Wednesday evening.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited President Joe Biden at his Rehoboth Beach home last weekend and urged him to drop his presidential bid, multiple sources now say
President Joe Biden leaves Las Vegas on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19
Biden was briefly in Rehoboth last weekend after campaigning in Detroit on Friday.
He left his beach house on Saturday night and returned to the White House after his rival, former President Donald Trump, was shot at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The assassination attempt on Trump appeared to calm calls for Biden to drop his re-election bid, but behind the scenes Democrats were still holding those discussions.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that California Rep. Adam Schiff, who is on track to win a U.S. Senate seat in November, told a crowd Saturday at a fundraiser in the Hamptons that he did not believe Biden could win and that the president’s unpopularity could also end Democrats’ chances in the House and Senate.
Schiff decided to make those comments publicly on Wednesday.
“While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement. “And in doing so, he will secure his legacy of leadership by enabling us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”
But since Biden’s disastrous debate performance late last month, he has stood firm and insisted on staying in the race.
During a later interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the Catholic president said only “the almighty Lord” would get him off that course.
In an interview published Wednesday with BET, Biden added that a health issue could potentially persuade him to drop out of the race.
“If I had some medical condition that came up, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you have this problem and that problem,” Biden said.
On Wednesday, in the middle of a multi-day campaign trip to Las Vegas, Biden tested positive for COVID-19.
A statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president was experiencing only “mild” symptoms and would self-isolate at his home in Delaware.