The Washington Post reported that President Obama privately said that Biden’s chances of winning have been significantly reduced. A spokesperson for the former president declined to comment.
The polls and reports on President Obama came after the US media reported that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the two most senior Democrats in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, advised Biden to consider the nomination for the party’s benefit. All denied the reports.
A senior Democratic source told BBC News the mood in Washington was grim. “We are all waiting for an inevitable decision.”
Washington Democratic congressman Adam Smith painted a similarly grim picture. Asked on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight whether Biden’s candidacy was “over,” he said: “That’s my sense. Well, I don’t know. But I think without a doubt that this is where things are headed.”
Mr Biden has struggled for weeks after a disappointing performance in the first presidential debate late last month. He is currently in isolation in Delaware while recovering from a coronavirus infection.
By contrast, Donald Trump is scheduled to headline the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night, his first speech since surviving an assassination attempt. Delegates and supporters there have been in jubilant mood all week.
Mr. Biden has so far struck a defiant tone in the face of pressure from Democrats to step down as the party’s nominee. He continues to enjoy popular support among many lawmakers, including the powerful Black congressional coalition.
But there are signs that Democratic leaders are starting to apply more pressure.
Senate Majority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Jeffries reportedly told Biden last week that their congressional colleagues were “concerned” that Biden’s problems would hurt their own reelection chances.
Schumer said the report was “wild speculation,” while Jeffries said his report was a “private conversation that will remain private.”
CNN reported that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden that polls showed he couldn’t win. She later called the report a “food frenzy,” but did not deny that she had spoken to Mr. Biden.
On Thursday, the Post reported that President Obama had told several aides that Mr. Biden, a former vice president, should seriously consider running for office.
According to The New York Times, Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin wrote a letter to Biden likening him to a baseball pitcher nearing the end of his playing career, saying there was “no shame in retiring when your arm is tired” and that he had announced his retirement “to the cheers of an overwhelming crowd.”
TJ Ducklo, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, dismissed reports of the aristocrats’ concerns as “unfounded speculation from anonymous sources.”
He wrote on X, “Joe Biden is his party’s nominee.” “He is running for reelection.”
Biden's deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, said Mr. Biden “hasn't wavered on anything. The president has made his decision. I don't want to be rude, but I don't know how many more times I can say that.”
Mr. Biden has mild upper respiratory symptoms consistent with COVID-19 but does not have a fever, the president's physician Kevin O'Connor said Thursday.
The White House said he was expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in the United States on Wednesday.
