Nancy Pelosi ally Adam Schiff urges Joe Biden to withdraw from US presidential race

News7f July 18, 2024

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The future of Joe Biden’s re-election bid is once again in question after it emerged that Senate leader Chuck Schumer “conveyed” other Democrats’ views on his candidacy “directly” to the president and another senior Democrat called on him to “pass the torch.”

Adam Schiff, a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who led the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump, issued a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, raising “serious concerns” about whether Biden could beat Trump in November.

Schiff, who is running for the US Senate, is the first senior Democrat to call on Biden to step down. re-election since last week’s assassination attempt on Trump, which has forced many Democrats to suspend their campaign to remove the president from office.

Schiff’s move has increased pressure on Biden.

ABC News also reported that Schumer, the Senate majority leader and the most powerful Democrat in Congress, asked Biden to drop out of the race during a meeting last Saturday.

Schumer’s office did not dispute the report but called it “useless speculation.” The office said: “Leader Schumer conveyed his team’s views directly to President Biden on Saturday.”

The statement from Schumer’s office came as Biden was forced to cancel a speech in Nevada after tested positive for CovidHe flew back to Delaware on Wednesday evening. Before slowly walking up the stairs of Air Force One, Biden said, “I feel good.”

On PredictIt, an online prediction market, Biden’s odds of becoming the Democratic nominee have fallen sharply, while Vice President Kamala Harris’s odds of becoming the party’s nominee have risen sharply.

Biden allies are planning a virtual roll call vote to renominate the president before the Democratic convention in August. If successful, the preemptive nomination could quash any push to remove Biden, 81, that has flared up after the president’s damaging performance in last month’s debate.

Biden’s sluggish performance at the debate has sparked panic among Democratic lawmakers, influential donors and party operatives concerned Biden will not be able to defeat trumpet at the ballot box, or serve four more years in the White House.

Biden trails Trump in most national and swing-state polls. An Associated Press probe A poll released Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters want him to resign.

Still, many Democratic lawmakers have been reluctant to go public with their fears. A relatively small number — about 20 members of Congress so far — have said publicly they want Biden to resign. Many others have privately expressed concerns and tried to pressure the president behind the scenes.

Schiff’s intervention could signal a change in approach. As a senior lawmaker on Capitol Hill who is close to some in the Democratic leadership after nearly three decades in Congress, his comments could encourage others to speak out publicly about their concerns.

On Wednesday, Schiff called Biden “one of the most influential presidents in the history of our country,” but added: “Our country is at a crossroads.”

The congressman added that “the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone,” but he believes it is time for the president to “pass the torch” and “protect his legacy of leadership” by allowing another Democrat to become the party’s nominee for the White House.

Schiff’s decision to go public came as the top two Democrats in Congress, Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, objected to the early roll call vote. Schumer and Jeffries pushed to delay Biden’s nomination until next month, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Critics within the party have accused the Democratic National Committee of “stifling debate and prematurely blocking any possible changes to the Democratic nominee slate.”

Some party members have called for the online vote to take place sooner, as early as next week.

Biden has repeatedly rejected calls for him to suspend his re-election campaign. He spoke at a conference of Latino leaders in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schiff’s comments.

Republicans and the Trump campaign have sought to capitalize on Democratic infighting by projecting an image of party unity at their national convention this week in Milwaukee.

Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, on Wednesday declined an invitation for Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, to participate in the vice presidential debate with Kamala Harris, saying his team would wait until it was clear who would be on the party’s presidential ticket.