Former US president Barack Obama is worried about Joe Biden’s attempt to serve a second term as president, it’s been claimed.
Sources told the Associated Press that Mr Obama has privately expressed his concerns about Mr Biden’s candidacy within the Democrats.
They also claim that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi warned Mr Biden that Democrats could lose the ability to seize control in the House if he did not step away from the race – and that she’d showed him polling which suggests he probably cannot defeat Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Democrats at the highest levels are making a critical push for Mr Biden to reconsider his re-election bid, as unease grows at the White House and within the campaign at a fraught moment for the president and his party.
Mr Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again this year.
His deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks added: ‘He is not wavering on anything.’
In recent days the president has become more committed to staying in the race, according to another source.
But some Democrats hope Mr Biden will assess the trajectory of the race and his legacy during a pause in the campaign while he recovers from coronavirus.
Ms Pelosi became the highest-profile House Democrat to call for Mr Biden to drop his re-election bid, saying that while the decision is Mr Biden’s alone to make, she believes it is time to ‘pass the torch’.
If Democrats are seriously preparing the extraordinary step of replacing Mr Biden and shifting vice president Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, this weekend will be critical to changing the president’s mind, other people familiar with the private conversations said.
One said it is now or never ahead of a planned virtual roll call to nominate the party’s choice in early August, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Democrats know they have limited time to resolve the party turmoil after the president’s faltering debate performance last month.
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