- Publicly, President Joe Biden has so far resisted calls to end the campaign for a new nominee.
- However, some top Democrats reportedly believe Biden is personally becoming more receptive to the idea.
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats that Biden could be persuaded soon, according to WaPo.
Top Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, believe they may be close to convincing President Joe Biden to end his campaign amid growing concerns that the incumbent will not be able to serve a second term, according to multiple reports.
Publicly, Biden has repeatedly dismissed calls to drop out of the race, saying he remains the best candidate to defeat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
But privately, top Democratic leaders believe the president is becoming more receptive to the idea, according to multiple reports.
Pelosi, a key Biden ally, told a number of House Democrats that Biden could soon be convinced to end his campaign, three Democratic officials familiar with the former House speaker’s conversations told The Washington Post. Biden is currently in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Pelosi’s office did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
“Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the president of the United States,” a Pelosi spokesman told the Washington Post.
As calls for Biden’s campaign to be suspended grow, some top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have even told major donors that contingency plans are being drawn up in case Biden drops out of the race, sources familiar with the discussions told The Wall Street Journal.
Schumer’s spokesman told the Journal that many people have approached the senator with their ideas but he has not followed up on any of them.
The waning confidence in Biden’s prospects may have also reached the president’s Cabinet as some members privately debated among themselves whether Biden’s closest advisers should confront the president about his campaign, a source told Bloomberg.
The private conversations included discussions about Biden’s health and his ability to defeat Trump, according to a Bloomberg report.
Four anonymous sources close to Biden told The New York Times that the president has begun to accept the idea that his electoral chances are fading.
One source told the Times that “reality is starting to set in” and that Biden’s imminent endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris would not be a surprise. However, one of the four other sources cautioned the newspaper that Biden has not made a decision.
Meanwhile, a source close to Biden told CNN the president remains undecided about resigning.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates declined to comment and referred the BI investigation to the Biden campaign.
“The president is his party’s nominee, having won 14 million votes in the Democratic primary. He is running for re-election, and that will not change until he wins re-election,” Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo said in a statement to BI.
