President Biden’s bid for reelection was twisting in the wind Thursday amid a leak of no confidence from former President Barack Obama, faltering support in key swing states and a memo showing that Vice President Kamala Harris would not be the strongest Democratic alternative if Mr. Biden drops out of the race.
Mr. Obama told allies that his former vice president should “seriously consider” the viability of his candidacy, according to a report. It was the latest in a series of disclosures about subtle pressure from top Democrats for the president to exit the race because of concerns that he couldn’t defeat former President Donald Trump, who accepted the Republican Party’s nomination Thursday.
Axios reported that multiple senior Democrats now expect Mr. Biden to bow out “as soon as this weekend.” Such a move would leave the party with little time to regroup and reach consensus on a replacement. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago is scheduled to begin Aug. 19, but the party is planning to lock in Mr. Biden as the nominee during a virtual roll call vote during the first week of August.
And Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, one of the Senate’s most endangered Democrats, became the second senator to call on Mr. Biden to drop out. He said he wants an open nominating process at the convention, rather than immediately throwing his support behind the vice president.
Ms. Harris, the most likely plan B, doesn’t perform as well as four other Democrats in matchups against Mr. Trump in key battleground states, according to a memo from Democratic-funded polling group BlueLabs Analytics.
The draft memo says Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer outperform Ms. Harris. They were singled out for holding a 5-percentage-point lead over Mr. Biden across each of the battleground states in contests against Mr. Trump.
The memo said Ms. Harris performed better than Mr. Biden against Mr. Trump but not as well as the four other alternatives. The pollsters said Ms. Harris performed “behind the average [Democratic] alternative.”
“Voters are looking for a fresh face,” the memo said. “Those more closely tied to the current administration perform relatively worse than other tested candidates.”
Ms. Harris trails Mr. Trump by 3 points, 48% to 51%, in a CBS News/YouGov poll of likely voters released Thursday. The same survey showed Mr. Trump increasing his lead over Mr. Biden nationally from 2 points to 5 points since July 3.
Ms. Harris campaigned in North Carolina on Thursday with Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for her.
Mr. Biden spent the day at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. His doctor said he had mild symptoms but no fever.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor’s memo said Mr. Biden had mild upper respiratory symptoms and was taking antiviral medication as he remained in isolation.
“His vital signs remain normal,” Dr. O’Connor wrote in a memo distributed by the White House. “He will continue to conduct the business of the American people.”
Mr. Biden’s campaign officials and allies said the president intends to carry on with his reelection bid.
“Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where Joe Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,” campaign spokesman Quentin Fulks told reporters at a press conference on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Sen. Christopher A. Coons, Delaware Democrat and one of Biden’s closest allies, told reporters at the Aspen Security Forum that “the president deserves the respect of having conversations about our path forward constructively and privately and in a way that allows us as a Democratic caucus to come together in support of our nominee, who I believe will be Joe Biden.”
Emerson College polls showed Mr. Trump leading by 3 to 10 percentage points in a multicandidate field in each of the seven main swing states. In an eighth state, Virginia, Mr. Trump led by 5 points with a third-party candidate included.
Emerson polling director Spencer Kimball said the numbers show “Biden losing support more significantly than Trump gaining it since the attempted assassination” on Saturday.
Mr. Obama has spoken with Mr. Biden once since the president’s dismal debate performance on June 27 sparked a crisis of confidence within the party. His conversations of late have been with anxious Democrats such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to The Washington Post.
In sharing his thinking on those calls, Mr. Obama said he is worried about polls showing Biden slipping further behind Mr. Trump, who is gaining momentum as Democratic donors defect.
The Washington Times reached out to Mr. Obama’s team for comment.
BlueLabs Analytics interviewed 15,000 voters across seven battleground states — Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — from July 5 through July 12, roughly a week after Mr. Biden debated Mr. Trump.
“Nearly every tested Democrat performs better than the president,” the memo said. Mr. Trump is “leading the presidential race comfortably” across battleground states.
The memo found that alternative Democratic candidates edge out Mr. Biden in contests against Mr. Trump in crucial swing state races by an average of 3 percentage points. The document said that voters, by a ratio of 2-to-1, wanted the party to choose “the best nominee no matter who” if Mr. Biden exits the race.
Although Ms. Whitmer has been considered a possible replacement, she has vowed not to run.
Mr. Kelly won a tough election in 2022 against a Trump-backed opponent but appeared to support Mr. Biden in an interview with MSNBC on Wednesday. He said the Biden-Harris ticket would win if “we work hard as possible and not make any mistakes here.”
Mr. Moore and Mr. Shapiro have also said they support Mr. Biden.
As top party officials urge Mr. Biden to quit, he continues to push his policy agenda for a second term. This week, he proposed a nationwide rent control plan and announced more student loan forgiveness.
He also announced the start date of a deportation amnesty for illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens. The White House has teased a plan to rewrite the rules for the Supreme Court.
It all signals a deeply unsettled approach by Mr. Biden, who is focusing intensely on his base at a time of the campaign season when most presidential candidates are seeking to expand their appeal.
“It’s pretty evident that he is playing one of the few cards he has left as he tries to shore up his left flank while pressure mounts on him to step aside,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for Harry Reid, the late Senate Democratic leader.
Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University, said Mr. Biden is deploying “brightly colored objects” to make him look active and engaged while his campaign enters crisis mode.
“These are pie-in-the-sky proposals, some of which are not even within the president’s power to effect,” he said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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