WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s political world is falling apart. His best allies have either publicly or privately urged him to step down. Huge donations fell off the cliff. Grassroots fundraising does not meet the demands of a campaign that needs to be aggressively expanded three months before the presidential election. Members have their own re-election attempt already announced he has no path to victory.
Because a disastrous argument He changed the trajectory of his campaign three weeks ago in Atlanta, with Biden repeatedly trying to dig him out of power.
But even among the president’s staunchest supporters, who now believe the writing is on the wall, there is a sense that the ground is shifting beneath him, according to five people with knowledge of the situation.
“We’re nearing the end,” said a person close to Biden.
The man, who previously doubted Biden would ever step aside, acknowledged it was still the president’s decision, but joined the ranks of Biden allies who say he is nearing a tipping point.
As emergencies unfolded, the president tested positive for Covid on Wednesday and retreated to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, taking him off the campaign trail. Once again, he offered a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump, who will appear at a raucous coronation at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night, even after his brush with death on Saturday.
Also on Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for the California Senate, made a remarkable public appeal the president’s withdrawal from the nomination is a move that exposes other Democratic leaders, including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosiand Senator Chuck Schumer — caused serious concernsThe president, who is supported by the vote, risked taking control of Congress with him if he stayed on the same path.
In the hours after last weekend’s assassination attempt on Trump, some Democrats said they were calling for — or even fearing — Biden to step aside. would be “frozen”. as the president deals with a national crisis. But that passed quickly. Some allies now say the shooting, which has fueled an even more intense rally around Trump within his party, makes it even clearer that Biden’s cognitive decline will not win the White House.
A person with knowledge of the projections said the Biden campaign now expects to raise only 25% of the major donor money it plans to raise in July. this is a lower level From last week’s expectation that big-dollar fundraising was down 50%. This man said that the money “dried up”.
A Democratic lawmaker said on Wednesday that if Biden does not agree to step aside, the cacophony of calls will grow louder and more lawmakers will urge him to do so. The MP called it a “sad moment” for the party.
A sense of reality is starting to wash over some of the president’s top campaign lieutenants, who have endured phone calls from donors and one-time supporters saying they can’t back Biden.
A person who spoke to a senior official of the campaign said that a new sense of reality has entered the campaign.
“They finally realize; It’s not if, it’s when,” he said.
There has been a behind-the-scenes shift in the president’s openness to stepping aside, according to many people close to Biden, despite his aggressive insistence in public appearances and private phone calls with allies that he will go nowhere.
Biden already, according to some of the president’s aides, showed signs A person with knowledge of the conversation with the president’s aides said he “wouldn’t have gone ahead with it” if he had been sure he had no choice.
NBC News previously reported He said Biden’s private conversations with aides were more “reality-based” and included conversations about how Biden’s legacy could be defined by a long standoff with his party or losing the White House to Donald Trump, which Biden himself has repeatedly warned against. A threat to American democracy.
On the surface, campaign officials remain steadfast in their assertion that Biden isn’t going anywhere.
“The president is doing well, isolating himself in Delaware,” Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager for the Biden campaign, said at a news conference in Milwaukee. “Our campaign is not working in any scenario where President Biden is not the top of the ticket. He is and will be the candidate of the Democrats.”
Biden’s every move has been scrutinized since the televised debate, in which he appeared confused, sometimes unable to complete a sentence. Biden stepped up his normally severely limited media exposure to demonstrate that he can make a compelling case for re-election.
“I’m old,” Biden Lester Holt told NBC News on Monday. “But I’m only three years older than No. 1 Trump. And #2 my mental acuity was very good. I have done more in 3½ years than any president has done in a long, long time. Therefore, I am ready to be judged for this.”
But instead of allaying concerns, Biden’s revelations only fueled them among allies. Biden stumbled, mixed up names and lost his train of thought.
For example, before going off the trail Wednesday, Biden mistakenly referred to the Democratic attorney general of Nevada as the state’s Republican governor, according to a stock exchange report.
“Sad,” is how one close Biden ally described the dynamic around the president.
“There is no excitement in this campaign,” said another ally.
Some Biden aides have warned that the campaign has angered some voters in battleground states, saying people are trying to oust the president they voted for.
As calls grow louder for Biden to step aside, a campaign official said this weekend that no one has yet presented a detailed plan for an alternative to Biden.
Biden said at one point that he might consider stepping aside if he was told there was no way. In an interview released Tuesday, Biden said there is something else that will make him reevaluate his campaign.
“If I have some medical condition that comes up,” Biden offered. “If someone, the doctors, came to me and said there was a problem, that problem.”
Carol E. Lee and Monica Alba reported from Washington; Natasha Korecki reported from Chicago.