Democrats worried about US President Joe Biden's ability to win are making a renewed push for him to withdraw his re-election bid, and hope he will reconsider while he takes time off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID-19.
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Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again on November 5.
But publicly and privately, key Democrats are sending signals of concern, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries speaking privately to the president in the past week, candidly laying out the views of Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Separately, the Democrats' congressional campaign chief, Suzan DelBene, spoke with the president last week armed with fresh data, airing the concerns of Democrats who are seeking election to the House.
And on Wednesday, representative Adam Schiff, a close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, became the highest-profile House Democrat to call for Biden to drop out, saying while the decision was Biden's alone to make, he believed it was time to "pass the torch".
Facing tensions over Biden's ability to win, particularly after the Trump assassination attempt and as the Republican National Convention is under way in Milwaukee, Democrats know they have limited time to resolve the issue after the president's faltering debate performance in June.
To be sure, many Democrats want Biden to run, and the Democratic National Committee is still planning a vote to formally make Biden its nominee before the party convention begins on August 19 in Chicago.
ABC News reported new details about Biden's private meeting at the weekend with Schumer at the president's 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 and 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 AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
That sharply undercuts Biden's claim that "average Democrats" are still with him even if some "big names" are turning on him.
Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while travelling in Las Vegas and was 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 home to Delaware even before the diagnosis.
Schiff's announcement brings to nearly 20 the number of Democratic members of Congress calling on Biden to withdraw since the debate.
Schiff said that by bowing out, Biden would "secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election".
His ally Pelosi publicly supports Biden but revived questions about him after the debate when she said "it's up to the president" to decide what to do, even though he had already said he had no intention of stepping aside.
In response to Schiff, the Biden campaign pointed to "extensive support" for him and his re-election bid from members of Congress in key swing states, as well as from the Black and Hispanic caucuses.
Australian Associated Press
