Former President Barack Obama has reportedly joined the slate of high-ranking Democrats who think that President Joe Biden ought to reconsider his candidacy in the presidential race.
Obama has reportedly told his allies that he believes Biden’s path to victory in November has significantly narrowed and that his former running mate needs to start seriously considering the feasibility of his candidacy in 2024, multiple people familiar with the former president’s opinion told The Washington Post Thursday.
In his conversations with allies, Obama has said he wants to protect Biden and his legacy, according to the Post. Should the president mount an unsuccessful bid that costs Democrats the White House and control of both the House and Senate, that legacy could be in serious jeopardy.
News of Obama’s wavering confidence comes on the heels of three brutal leaks on Wednesday, which revealed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had all privately urged the president to withdraw from the race for the sake of the Democratic Party.
Still, their calls for him to step aside in the race come only as leaks and not public calls to withdraw, signaling a reticence to go against Biden entirely. These high-ranking Democrats have resorted to soft power to protect the president, and likely their own skins, should things go another way. The result is a third week of total chaos within the party, while Republicans rally around Donald Trump in Milwaukee and Biden continues to drop in the polls.
Obama’s concerns about Biden’s candidacy have only deepened in the weeks since the president’s disastrous debate performance, people familiar with the matter told the Post.
In all that time, the two have only spoken once, in the immediate aftermath of the debate, and Obama has kept relatively silent. It was reported that George Clooney had consulted with the former president ahead of the actor’s decision to publish an op-ed urging Biden to withdraw from the race.
