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Joe Biden was scheduled to sit down with Kamala Harris and a group of influential Democratic governors on Wednesday, as speculation ran high over whether the president would abandon his re-election bid in favor of his vice president.
The White House and the Biden campaign have insisted for days that the president will remain in the race after a disastrous performance in last week’s debate that raised serious questions about his fitness for office and ability to beat Donald Trump at the polls.
But mounting pressure from lawmakers, party officials and donors urging him to drop out of the race, along with a series of damaging polls, have cast new doubt on his campaign.
A New York Times article published Wednesday quoted an unnamed key ally as saying that Biden was aware that his reelection was now in jeopardy, and that much depended on his upcoming public appearances, including a nationally televised interview taped Friday and campaign stops in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania this weekend. CNN published a similar article citing an unnamed Biden ally.
A White House spokesman called the New York Times report “absolutely false.”
The reports came a day after a Democratic member of Congress publicly called on the president to step down — the first lawmaker from his party to do so — and several others publicly questioned his ability to beat Trump in November.
Opinion polls released since then have shown Biden losing ground to his Republican rival.
A new CBS News poll taken after the debate and released Wednesday showed Trump with a two-point lead over Biden nationally. The same poll gave Biden a lead a month ago. On Tuesday, a CNN poll taken after the debate showed Biden’s approval ratings had plunged to a record low and found that Harris fared better than him in a hypothetical matchup with Trump.
Harris has been plagued by low approval ratings for most of her tenure as vice president. But her potential as Biden’s replacement has gained momentum in recent days. Betting markets swung sharply in Harris’ favor Wednesday, giving her a better chance of winning the November election than Biden.
Since the debate, Harris has kept a relatively low profile, continuing her campaign activities and fundraising on the West Coast to support Biden’s reelection bid. Her lunch with the president on Wednesday would be their first face-to-face meeting since the debate.
Biden also spoke by phone with Democratic House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday night and with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday morning, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
The talks come amid growing tensions among Democratic lawmakers, who have privately and publicly expressed dismay that Biden will not only lose the White House but could also prove a drag on second-tier Democrats running for seats in the House and Senate.
Biden will meet Wednesday night with several Democratic state governors who are concerned about the president’s candidacy.
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was among those traveling to Washington to attend the meeting in person, according to a person familiar with his schedule. California Gov. Gavin Newsom also reportedly planned to attend the White House meeting. A spokesperson for Newsom did not respond to a request for comment.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will both participate in the meeting by phone, according to their spokespeople. A spokeswoman for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, widely seen as another potential presidential contender, did not respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Steff Chavez in Washington and Joshua Chaffin in New York
News Source : www.ft.com
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