President Biden might drop out of the race for president this weekend.
Top Democrats, Axios reported this morning, will convince Biden that former President Donald Trump will win the November election if Biden runs and that they also expect to lose both houses of Congress.
As well, top donors are pressing Biden to drop out. Most recently, Hollywood big shot Jeffrey Katzenberg told Biden that big-donor money is drying up for the president’s bid, Semafor reported.
The news comes on the heels of Biden’s catching Covid-19, which could be fatal for the 46th president.
Post Convention “Blowout” in Polls
“Several top Democrats privately tell us the rising pressure of party congressional leaders and close friends will persuade President Biden to decide to drop out of the presidential race, as soon as this weekend,” Axios reported.
That “private message, distilled to its bluntest forum,” is this:
The top leaders of his party, his friends and key donors believe he can’t win, can’t change public perceptions of his age and acuity, and can’t deliver congressional majorities.
The president is being told that if he stays in, former President Trump could win in a landslide and wipe away Biden’s legacy and Democrats’ hopes in November.
What “legacy” Biden will leave beside appointing sex perverts to high office is unclear. At any rate, when the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee closes, Democrats believe the polls will be a “blowout” for Trump.
One of Biden’s “closest friends” told Axios this: “His choice is to be one of history’s heroes, or to be sure of the fact that there’ll never be a Biden presidential library. I pray that he does the right thing. He’s headed that way.”
ABC News reported that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told Biden he must drop out, Axios noted, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said likewise Biden “could destroy Democrats’ chances of taking back the House.” She’s also worried that wealthy donors are withholding money.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) delivered a similar, if more subtle, message to Biden.
Former President Obama has spoken loudly with his silence — and his former aides are trashing Biden in public.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are doing what Obama’s doing. So are their former aides.
We increasingly hear top Biden aides, including ones who initially urged him to fight on after his disastrous debate on June 27 — 21 days ago — are saying it’s now when, not if, Biden announces he’s not running.
The Biden-Harris campaign told Axios that “Biden is the Democratic nominee and he is going to win this November,” yet the president is now “listening more” and asking whether Vice President Kamala Harris can beat Trump.
Donors Running Away
As for the donors, Katzenberg denied Semafor’s report that he privately told Biden it was time to drop out. The website reported that Katzenberg warned Biden that “donors’ patience is wearing thin, and their cash soon will, too.”
Katzenberg, one of Biden’s closest counselors and a conduit to moneyed circles in media and finance, told the president that major donors, doubtful of his ability to win in November, have all but stopped writing the kind of big checks that sustain campaigns in the home stretch, people familiar with the meeting said. One of the people said the donor warning came in a broader discussion of other campaign topics.
Katzenberg denied the report and said that “we will raise the money we need to run a winning campaign.”
Maybe.
But the Semafor report mirrors one last week in the New York Times.
Donors have vowed not to contribute $90 million to Future Forward, the premier Biden Super PAC.
“The frozen contributions include multiple eight-figure commitments, according to [sources] who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation,” the Times reported.
As well, “The cash freeze comes as some advisers around Mr. Biden are discussing how to persuade the president to exit the race, and as his campaign has begun to test Vice President Kamala Harris in head-to-head surveys of voters against former President Donald J. Trump.”
Joining the list of Democrats who want Biden to drop out of the race is Russia Collusion–Impeachment Hoaxer Representative Adam Schiff of California.
“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch. And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election,” the disgraced congressman said.
Noting that the nation is “at a crossroads,” he continued, “a second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
“I’m Sick”
Biden confirmed the Covid diagnosis last night at 6:22 p.m. on X. At the same time, Biden posted this news: “I’m sick.” Two minutes later came this: “of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election. And if you agree, pitch in here,” it said.
Biden has no problem, an X user noted, with Hungarian communist billionaire George Soros buying elections, but that aside, Axios reported that Democrats were furious about the “I’m sick” post.
A House Democrat told Axios “Congressional Democrats are also sick,” the website reported:
“Sick of the gaslighting, sick of the inaction, and sick of people in positions of power protecting a president about to lose the White House while taking the House with him,” the lawmaker said, calling the post “pathetic.”
Another Democrat called the post “strange” while another said “what … in the world is this humor.”
