Some of the US President's advisors Joe Biden The 81-year-old is reportedly unconvinced he can win the November presidential election against Republican rival Donald Trump, and the New York Times, citing unnamed sources, said they had been trying in recent days to find ways to persuade Biden to drop out of the race.
Biden remains firmly convinced that he wants to stay in the race, and according to the newspaper, his closest circle of advisers, including his family, will also support this.
The White House denied that Biden’s team would not stand united behind the Democrat. “That is clearly not true,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “President Biden’s team fully supports him.”
But NBC also reported that many of Biden’s allies see his chances of winning the November election as zero. “He has to get out,” an unnamed representative from Biden’s campaign team was quoted as saying by the network. “He’s never going to recover from this.”
Biden's Battle for the Nomination
Biden has been fighting for the nomination for nearly two weeks. In the party’s internal primary, he has already gathered enough delegates to be chosen as the nominee at the Democratic convention in August. So he alone can decide to withdraw.
However, since the televised debate against Trump, some supporters and party members have questioned whether Biden still has the mental fitness to serve a second term in office. The debate is also casting a shadow over the NATO summit currently underway in Washington, DC. New doubters are being added every day. But the 81-year-old has so far stuck to his candidacy.
Ahead of Biden’s much-anticipated press conference, the president’s top advisers met with senators. Among other things, Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon was scheduled to campaign for the incumbent on the Capitol floor on Thursday. The Democrat himself served in the Senate for more than three decades — from 1973 to 2009. Asked if aides could address the chamber’s concerns about the election, Senator Joe Manchin said: “Only the president can do that.”
In the Senate, as well as in the other chamber, the House of Representatives, there are concerns that the president’s slide in the polls could hurt his party’s chances in Congress. On November 5, in addition to the president, a third of the Senate and the entire House are up for reelection. The majority there is extremely narrow. Several party colleagues and celebrities have publicly called on Biden to withdraw his request, while other influential Democrats have been noticeably cautious. The president has repeatedly said he will comply with his request.
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