Top Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, believe they may be close to convincing President Joe Biden to end his campaign amid growing fears that the incumbent cannot serve a second term, according to multiple reports.
In public, Biden has repeatedly shot down calls to drop out of the race, arguing that he remains the best candidate to beat presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
But in private, top Democratic leaders believe the president is becoming more receptive to the idea, according to multiple reports.
Pelosi, a key Biden ally, told some House Democrats that Biden could be convinced soon to end his campaign, three Democratic officials familiar with the former House speaker’s conversations told The Washington Post. Biden is currently in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Pelosi’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
“Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States,” a spokesperson for Pelosi told the Washington Post.
As the calls for Biden’s campaign suspension increase, some top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have even told major donors that contingency plans are being made in the event Biden drops out of the race, sources familiar with the discussion told The Wall Street Journal.
Schumer’s spokesperson told the Journal that many have approached the senator about their ideas but he has not acted upon any of them.
The declining confidence in Biden’s prospects also may have reached the president’s cabinet as some members privately discussed amongst themselves whether Biden’s closest advisors should confront the president about his campaign, a source told Bloomberg.
The private talks included discussions on Biden’s health and his ability to beat Trump, according to the Bloomberg report.
Four unnamed sources close to Biden told The New York Times that the president has started to accept the idea of his waning electoral chances.
One source told the Times that “reality is setting in” and that Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris sometime soon would not come as a surprise. However, another one of the four sources cautioned the newspaper that Biden has yet to make a decision.
Meanwhile, a source close to Biden told CNN that the president remains unconvinced about dropping out.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates declined to comment and referred BI’s inquiry to the Biden campaign.
“The President is his party’s nominee, having won 14 million votes during the Democratic primary. He’s running for reelection, and that will not change until he wins reelection,” TJ Ducklo, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to BI.
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