Pressure builds on US President Joe Biden as Barack Obama has ‘concerns’ about his candidacy

Several top Democratic leaders reportedly privately push the president to drop his campaign. Meanwhile, Mr Biden insists he will not back down, arguing he beat Donald Trump before and he will do so again.

File pic: Reuters

Pressure is building on Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign after former president Barack Obama told allies his path to victory had greatly diminished.

Mr Obama has “concerns” about his ability to remain as the Democratic nominee, two people familiar with his thinking told NBC News, Sky’s US partner.

He sees Mr Biden’s route to victory in November “getting harder”, said one of the sources.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden has reportedly said he would consider dropping out of the 2024 race if he was diagnosed with a “medical condition” by a doctor.

In a pre-recorded interview with BET News, he said he would re-evaluate his campaign “if I had some medical condition that emerged”.

“If doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” he added.

He also acknowledged he had run for the presidency as a “transitional candidate” and had expected to “pass it on to somebody else”.

But he said he had not expected how divided the US would become, adding: “There’s more to do and I’m reluctant to walk away from that.”

A source close to President Biden told NBC News the leader was responding to the building pressure, saying: “Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump?

“In 2015, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer pushed Biden aside in favour of Hillary; they were wrong then and they are wrong now.”

They suggested the US leader was “more in touch with actual Americans than Obama-Pelosi-Schumer”.

Top Democrats call for Biden to drop campaign

Several top Democrat leaders have reportedly privately pushed him to drop his campaign.

US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi have told Mr Biden they are concerned he will not only lose the White House but also cost the party any chance of winning back the House of Representatives in the 5 November election, several reports said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/pressure-builds-on-us-president-joe-biden-as-barack-obama-questions-his-candidacy-13180499

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