A series of overlapping warnings to Joe Biden that he faces defeat if he keeps up his reelection bid are finally resonating with the president as he ponders what’s next for himself and his Party at his Delaware beach house.
With former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, and Speaker Hakeem Jeffries all sharing information about the tanking support for Biden on Capitol Hill and in the polls, the president now must decide whether to heed the grim advice while battling COVID-19 while in Rehoboth Beach.
Asked if the information is getting through to Biden, one House Democrat close to him told DailyMail.com, ‘I think it is and I’m going to leave it at that.’
A Washington Post report that former President Barack Obama was telling allies that Biden’s path to victory was greatly diminished only added to the frenzy surrounding Biden’s next move – although one longtime former Senate leadership aide who knows all the players involved told DailyMail.com it was Pelosi whose fingerprints were on the latest pressure campaign more than the former president.
‘He never got his fingers dirty in the nitty gritty politics when he was president. Why would that change now? He knows damn well that Biden harbors some sort of resentment that he urged [Hillary] Clinton to run instead of himself’ in 2016, said the source.
A series of leaks about Pelosi’s warnings to Biden – even sharing detailed polling data with him showing that he can’t beat Donald Trump – made it ‘obvious she’s central to this whole soap opera,’ said the aide. The latest demonstration was Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) public call for Biden to ‘pass the torch’. Pelosi installed Schiff to run the Intelligence Committee, her former perch, and backed her protege in his Senate primary.
‘Anyone familiar with their relationship would have reason to believe that he did that only after consulting with her,’ said the aide. The internal opposition and the late hour have prompted a second look at Vice President Kamala Harris, despite her failure to win more public approval than Biden as at least an opportunity to try a new play after polls that have barely moved for months. ‘We’re already headed towards a disaster,’ said the longtime aide.
Still another shoe dropped Thursday with the leak of a four-page letter to Biden penned by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), another prominent Democrat, that compared him to aging Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez being left on the mound too long during the 2003 American League Championship Series against the rival New York Yankees.
That came before Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) said it was time for Biden to ‘pass the torch’ despite being ‘an incredible President’ for the ‘good of the country.’
‘Democrats need to unite and deliver their strongest team to the American people in this election,’ he said in a statement.
A source familiar with Obama’s thinking tried to tamp down some of the reports of a pressure campaign emanating from him, without overtly denying it. ‘He continues to see his primary role as a sounding board and counselor for President Biden, as they have long done for each other for many years now,’ the source told DailyMail.com.
‘He believes Joe Biden has been an outstanding President and is protective of him both personally and of the Biden administration’s strong and historic accomplishments,’ said the source.
But after defiant statements and circling the wagons after his disastrous debate performance, there are signals that Biden, 81, is considering the bleak political picture being presented to him.
‘His soul searching is actually happening, I know that for a fact. He’s thinking about this very seriously,’ a source told Reuters. Biden is ‘resting’ and ‘reflecting’ in Delaware, said home state Sen. Chris Coons, a campaign co-chair.
Underlining the injury is a unified Republican convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is being held up as a hero who survived a would-be assassin’s bullet. His son Eric Trump told DailyMail.com and a gaggle of reporters awaiting Trump’s convention speech that it would define him as a ‘fighter’ who will ‘stand up after getting shot in the face.’
Biden’s reassessment comes as a series of public appearances since the debate have put to the test Biden’s initial claim that he had a ‘bad day.’ While he has avoided any similar catastrophes, he has continued to mangle sentences, speak softly, have answers trail off in interviews, and leave out names, infuriating some of his allies who want more than a passable performance to take the fight to Trump.
Pelosi has told some members of her caucus Biden can be persuaded to step back ‘fairly soon,’ the Washington Post reported, following earlier reports the move could come as soon as this weekend.
Democratic insiders know that each day counts, with Donald Trump delivering his convention speech in prime time Thursday and a rush to try to stop the bleeding before the Democratic convention in Chicago next month.
Some of the key moves remarkably remained out of the press for days, including Schumer’s extraordinary drive to Biden’s Delaware beach house to huddle.
‘The dynamics have clearly shifted in the last week. Things were frozen of course during the horrific shooting of President Trump. Things were frozen a bit. They picked up again,’ observed former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki on MSNBC.
Still, Psaki, who came to prominence during the Obama campaign and administration – the wellspring of some of Biden’s most vocal critics – said, ‘My understanding from talking to people close to him is he has not made a decision yet.’
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates denied a breathless report that Biden would announce his decision to withdrawal from the nomination as soon as this weekend.
‘This fan fiction is wrong,’ he posted.