WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats worried about President
Joe Biden’s
Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican
Donald Trump
Over the past week, Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer
Separately, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, spoke with the president last week armed with fresh data. The campaign chief specifically aired the concerns of frontline Democrats who are seeking election to the House.
And on Wednesday, California Rep.
Adam Schiff
While the tensions over Biden’s ability to carry on a winning campaign subsided some, particularly after the
Trump assassination attempt
To be sure, many Democrats want Biden to stay in the race. And the Democratic National Committee is pushing ahead with plans for a
virtual vote to formally make Biden its nominee
Late Wednesday, ABC News reported new details about Biden’s private meeting over the weekend with Schumer at the president’s beach home in Delaware. It said Schumer told the president it would be “better for the Democratic Party, and better for the country if he were to bow out.”
A Schumer spokesperson called the report “idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden told Schumer, as well as Jeffries, that “he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”
But among Democrats nationwide, nearly two-thirds say Biden should step aside and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to
a new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll
Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.
The president, who has spent the past several days campaigning, had already been scheduled to return to his Delaware beach home even before the diagnosis.
Schiff’s announcement brings to nearly 20 the number of Democratic members of Congress calling on Biden to
withdraw from the presidential race
Schiff said that by bowing out, Biden would “secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”
Schiff is a prominent Democrat on his own, and his statement will also be watched because of his proximity to
Pelosi
It was Pelosi who
revived questions about Biden
In response to Schiff’s comments, the Biden campaign pointed to what it called “extensive support” for him and his reelection bid from members of Congress in key swing states, as well as from the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses. The campaign noted that Biden had been joined on his trip to Nevada this week by nearly a dozen Congressional Black Caucus members.
Still, Schiff’s announcement came after Schumer and Jeffries encouraged the party to delay for a week plans to hold the virtual vote to renominate Biden, which could have taken place as soon as Sunday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The
Democratic National Committee’
“We will not be implementing a rushed virtual voting process, though we will begin our important consideration of how a virtual voting process would work,” Bishop Leah D. Daughtry and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, co-chairs of the rules committee for the
Democratic National Convention
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.