Former US President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have privately discussed the questions surrounding President Joe Biden’s candidacy in the presidential election, according to a report. Following last month’s disastrous presidential debate with Trump in which Biden could not complete sentences multiple times while appearing to sporadically freeze through the debate and losing his train of thoughts, calls have mounted for him to withdraw from the race and make way for some younger candidates. Biden’s physical and mental health to see through another term is under serious questions as his gaffes continue and his public appearances fail to shun the questions.
On his part, Biden has said that he is in the race till the very end and he may only consider quitting if God comes down to Earth to tell him so. Now, amid such circumstances, the CNN has reported that Obama and Pelosi have discussed the prospects of Biden’s candidacy and how difficult it is at this point to beat Trump. Of the six polls on election news and data website FiveThirtyEight, Trump is leading in three, Biden in one, and they are tied in two. It further reports that Biden’s approval rating is 36.8 per cent compared to Trump’s 40.2 per cent at this time in his presidency.
Since the debate, Democrats have been divided whether to forcefully push Biden to quit or rally around him with the singular goal to beat Trump. The fact that the election is less than four months away and any replacement will have a disadvantaged start has complicated any decision for them. Amid such concerns and growing calls from donors for Biden to step down, the Democrats have turned to two senior Democrats who hold enough sway to influence Biden’s decision-making.
The CNN has reported that Democrats are not just looking up to them to convince Biden to step down but are looking up to them to provide clarity whether the party should push Biden or rally around them. Those feel Biden has a chance to winning told CNN that Obama and Pelosi “need to say that clearly as soon as possible before even more damage is done” to the campaign. The critics of Biden, however, said that the end of campaign is a matter of when, not if.
The Democrats have turned to Obama and Pelosi as other senior Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries don’t have the relationship deep enough to tell Biden to step down, as per CNN. Both Obama and Pelosi have long relationships with Biden. So far, Obama has not spoken much about Biden’s candidacy except for a post on X (formerly Twitter) after the debate that “bad debate nights happen”. He has neither spokes in favour of the candidacy nor in opposition to it.
The CNN reported that even the post on X was a result of efforts from the aides of Biden and Obama. Even though Obama has not said anything publicly, Obama has deepening scepticism of Biden’s ability to win the election, as per CNN, which called it one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington DC. The report also said that some Biden loyalists think that Obama was behind an article in The New York Times by actor and Democrat donor George Clooney that called upon him to withdraw from the race. The report quoted them as dubbing them a “mark of deep betrayal”.
