People Close to Biden Say He Appears to Accept
He May Have to Leave the Race
One person familiar with President Biden’s thinking cautioned that he had not yet made up his mind to leave the race, after three weeks of insisting that almost nothing would drive him out.
Several people close to President Biden said on Thursday that they believe he has begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win in November and may have to drop out...
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...another said that “reality is setting in,” and that it would not be a surprise if Mr. Biden made an announcement soon endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.
This account is based on interviews with four people close to the president, all of whom described the situation as extremely delicate and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending the president. Mr. Biden remained in isolation at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., after being diagnosed with Covid on Wednesday.
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White House officials denied that the president was moving toward dropping out, dismissing reports to the contrary as a result of a coordinated campaign of leaks by Democratic leaders [I think, I KNOW, it is that.] to escalate the pressure on Mr. Biden. While they said he was listening to the concerns and taking them seriously, he had not changed his mind about pulling out and made clear to aides in the last 24 hours that he remained determined to stay in the race.
Mike Donilon, [Pelosi: "Put Donilon on the phone".] Mr. Biden’s longtime senior adviser and one of his most loyal confidants, has told the president that the race remains competitive despite Democratic doubts and some of the public polls, insisting that there is still a path to victory, according to other advisers. The president’s family has also been supportive of his sticking it out, noting his long history of overcoming the odds and defying skeptics.
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Mr. Biden...was confronted directly with polls showing that his donors were abandoning him and he was losing badly in all of the battleground states.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker and one of the president’s most loyal supporters, has told him that she is pessimistic about his chances, marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising to press her case. In a recent call, when Mr. Biden insisted he had polls showing he could win, Ms. Pelosi said “put Donilon on the phone,” so she could cite her own polls showing the opposite — a direct challenge to the president and an implication that he was not being fully informed.