President Joe Biden is doing “fine” a day after testing positive for Covid-19, an adviser said Thursday. His campaign, not so much.
Increasingly public warnings from top Democratic lawmakers left his reelection effort at its most vulnerable nadir since his disastrous debate performance, with speculation over the when, how, or if Biden might step aside dominating political discussion ahead of Republican rival Donald Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday night in Milwaukee.
Biden surrogates insisted on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention that the president was “not wavering” and remained dedicated to running, but the pressure kept building.
John Hickenlooper, the senator from Colorado, became the latest Democrat in the upper chamber to publicly suggest that it was in the interest of the country for Biden to step aside. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in issuing statements stopping well short of denying they had pressured the president to exit the race or expressing support for Biden’s candidacy.
And the president’s illness is virtually certain to stymie his efforts to respond to critics who have called on him to demonstrate he has the stamina to make the case against Trump and serve another four years.
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The result is a political environment that has left Biden aides exasperated, and with few opportunities to escape the death spiral consuming his campaign.
Senior Democrats are betting the rising pressure from party lawmakers and close friends will convince Biden to drop out of the race as soon as this weekend, Axios reported Thursday morning.
In Milwaukee, the frustration was palpable as deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks spoke with reporters. Fulks chided the media for focusing their questions on fellow Democrats’ calls for Biden to exit the race, while insisting Biden was “feeling fine” and “continuing to make calls and do work.” The campaign, he said, was “not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not on the top of the ticket.”
“The sooner we get past talking about this and talking about what’s at stake and what we’ve heard for the first three nights of this convention, and what we’re going to hear tonight from Donald Trump, the better off,” he added.
But Biden’s diagnosis is likely to sideline him for days after Donald Trump’s nominating convention. That will hamper the president’s ability to regain momentum at a time when the Democratic uprising over his candidacy has intensified, with more prominent party members nudging him to exit.
In an interview with Univision taped Wednesday shortly before his diagnosis, Biden said he did not feel betrayed by those urging him to step aside - while acknowledging that questions were valid after his “terrible” debate.
“And so people are now saying, ‘Well, that was only one thing, but he’s 81 years old. What happens in— 84 years old, he’s 85 years old?’” Biden said, amid bouts of coughing.
If Biden continues to test positive for Covid for an extended period, he’d be unable hold the type of rallies, interviews and other events fellow Democrats have urged him to do. Even if he does return to the campaign trail, or participate in interviews from home, he could deliver poor performances if his cough, fatigue and congestion persist.
Nor has the president proven able to change the narrative, even in the days before his diagnosis.
Hickenlooper said in an interview with Reuters late Wednesday that he believed Biden was “working towards” a decision on whether to stay in the race.
“That’s his decision to make, but certainly there’s more and more indications that that would be in the best interests of the country, I think,” Hickenlooper said when asked about Biden stepping down.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer flatly told Biden it would be better for Democrats if he ended his bid, ABC News reported earlier Wednesday. House Minority Leader Jeffries said to Biden he was a drag on the party’s congressional campaigns, according to the Washington Post. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told him privately he could not defeat Trump, CNN reported.
Asked about the report, Jeffries’s office offered comment that offered little solace to the president.
“On behalf of the House Democratic caucus, he directly expressed the full breadth of insight, perspective and conclusions reached about the path forward — after extensive colleague-to-colleague discussions,” according to the statement. It offered no signal of support for the president.
Biden’s team had sought to use a two-day visit to the battleground state of Nevada to quiet talk about his age and acuity and shore up support among Black and Latino voters, who have shown signs of drifting away from him.
He sat for an interview with BET News and spoke to the NAACP national convention Tuesday, rolling out new initiatives aimed at addressing high housing costs, a major political vulnerability. On Wednesday, he was interviewed by Univision and then was set to speak to a UnidosUS gathering when the organization’s president told attendees that Biden was unable to appear because he fell ill.
It was a disappointing end for Biden to a trip that was intended to stabilize his campaign after three weeks of turmoil set off by his faltering debate performance against Trump.
Biden appeared to be in a weakened state as he traveled to his Delaware home to self-isolate. He walked slowly up the stairs while boarding Air Force One in Las Vegas, where he had several events scheduled, and appeared to receive assistance while getting into an SUV upon landing.
The president’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, said in a statement Wednesday that Biden had a runny nose, a cough and “general malaise.” He was able to get through his Univision interview earlier Wednesday but took a rapid Covid test when he was not feeling well and the result was positive. He took a dose of Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid, which is designed to reduce the virus’s symptoms.
While Biden has been steadfast in his insistence that he will stay in the race, he has recently dropped hints about what might force him out.
When asked at his press conference last week if he would reconsider his decision if polls showed Vice President Kamala Harris faring better against Trump, Biden said, “No, unless they came back and said, ‘there’s no way you can win.’ No one is saying that.”
Biden, in response to a question from a BET anchor, said he would also be willing to revisit his choice if he had a medical condition that emerged.
With assistance from Jenny Leonard.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
