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The future of Joe Biden’s reelection effort has been thrown into doubt again after it was revealed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has “communicated” Democrats’ views on Biden’s candidacy “directly” to the president, and that another senior Democrat has called for Biden to “pass the baton”.
Adam Schiff, a top aide to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the first impeachment against then-President Donald Trump, released a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday saying he had “serious concerns” about whether Biden could beat Trump in November.
Schiff, who is running for the U.S. Senate, is the first prominent Democrat to call on Biden to not seek reelection since last week’s assassination attempt on Trump prompted many Democrats to suspend their campaigns to unseat him as a top candidate.
Schiff’s move renewed pressure on Biden.
ABC News also reported that Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader and the most influential Democrat in Congress, told Biden to drop out of the race during a meeting last Saturday.
Schumer’s office did not dispute the report but called it “unfounded speculation.” “Leader Schumer conveyed our caucus’ views directly to President Biden on Saturday,” his office said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries also told Biden that lawmakers had concerns about his reelection campaign, and a White House spokesman said, “The president has informed both leaders that he is their nominee, that he intends to win, and that he looks forward to working with them to pass a 100-day package to help working families.”
Biden, who was forced to cancel a speech in Nevada after testing positive for COVID-19, was on a flight back to Delaware on Wednesday night. “I’m feeling fine,” Biden said before slowly climbing the steps of Air Force One.
On the online predictions market PredictIt, Biden’s chances of becoming the Democratic nominee have plummeted, while Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming the party’s nominee have soared.
Biden’s allies are planning a virtual roll-call vote to renominate the president ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August. If successful, the preemptive nomination could thwart efforts to remove the 81-year-old Biden, sparked by his unfavorable performance in last month’s presidential debate.
Biden’s shaky performance in the debate has sparked panic among Democratic lawmakers, top donors and party officials who worry he won’t be able to beat Trump at the polls or hang on to the White House for another four years.
Biden has trailed Trump in nearly every poll, both nationally and in battleground states, and an Associated Press poll released Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to step down.
But many Democrats have been hesitant to air their concerns publicly. A relatively small number of them — about two dozen so far — have said publicly they want Biden out of office, and many more have privately voiced their concerns and tried to pressure the president behind closed doors.
Schiff’s intervention could signal a change in approach. As a senior member of Congress and close to some in the Democratic leadership after serving in Congress for nearly three decades, his comments could encourage others to publicly voice their concerns.
Schiff on Wednesday called Biden “one of the most important presidents in the history of our country” but added that “our country is at a crossroads.”
The congressman said “the choice whether to withdraw from the campaign remains solely with President Biden,” but added that he believes it is time for the president to “pass the baton” and “secure his legacy of leadership” by accepting another Democrat as the party’s nominee for the White House.
Schiff’s decision to go public came as the top two Democrats in Congress, Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, raised objections to an early roll-call vote. They urged Biden to delay his nomination until next month, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Critics within the party have accused the DNC of “stifling debate and prematurely stifling any possibility of a change in the Democratic nominee.”
Some party leaders called for the virtual vote to be held even sooner, as soon as next week.
Biden, who has repeatedly rejected calls to end his reelection campaign, was speaking at a conference of Latino leaders in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.
A Biden campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schiff’s remarks.
Republicans and the Trump campaign have sought to exploit Democratic infighting by portraying the party as united at its national convention in Milwaukee this week.
Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said Wednesday that he would decline an invitation to Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, to participate in a vice presidential debate with Kamala Harris, and that the campaign would wait until it was clear who the party’s presidential nominee would be.
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