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Within the last week, Joe Biden has acknowledged that he initially ran as a “transitional” candidate; claimed that no poll has shown any other Democratic candidate winning against Donald Trump; and that he would end his campaign if he was diagnosed with an urgent “medical condition.”
And, as if in response, prominent Democratic Party leaders told him to hang up his re-election campaign; poll after poll indicated there is no way he can win; and then he got Covid- 19.
There have been daily “is this the end?” moments for Biden’s campaign since his first 2024 debate against his Republican rival, Donald Trump, on June 27, each one eclipsed by the one that followed. Every time, the president has insisted that he will remain the nominee.
But a series of events within just 48 hours appear to have thrown that guarantee into jeopardy, more so than at any other point within the last few weeks, with the trajectory of the presidential race and the country’s future hanging in the balance.
On Thursday, reports emerged that Biden was more “receptive” to discussions of another candidate atop the ticket, and senior Democrats told one outlet that he could step down as soon as this weekend.
The next morning, hours after Trump was officially named the Republican nominee, Biden’s campaign and surrogates rallied to his defense in TV and radio interviews. Biden said in a statement, through his campaign, that he plans to be back on the campaign trail next week, after he recovers from Covid.
And by Friday night, a dozen more Democratic members of Congress publicly urged him to leave the race.
On the same day that a 20-year-old gunman fired an AR-15-style rifle at Trump - who seized on the moment by raising a defiant fist in the air, an image now used in his fundraising campaign — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was meeting with Biden in Delaware, reportedly in an effort to nudge him towards the exits.
Separately, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been trying to get Biden to see that polls are showing that there is no clear path to winning in November, according to reports.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also reportedly met privately with the president last week with similar warnings. On Friday, he took a breath before telling New York public radio that “the ticket that exists right now is the ticket we can win on.”
But after a series of leaks from off-the-record meetings surfaced in the press, signaling that Biden is resisting calls to step aside, and that private attempts to guide the president’s decision making have failed, reports began to emerge that former president Barack Obama believes his former vice president should seriously reconsider his viability as a candidate.
While Obama has publicly remained quiet in the wake of the June 27 debate, the still-massively influential figure within Democratic politics has been fielding calls with concerns about Biden and appears prepared to break the news to his former running mate.
The Democratic National Committee has also delayed a virtual roll call vote for Biden’s renomination — reportedly at the urging of Schumer and Jeffries — as momentum builds among officials to force him to withdraw.
Polls reflect growing frustrations among Democratic voters, who have reminded Biden that he planned to be a one-term president, and that instead of passing the torch, he risks tanking down-ballot races in November elections and propelling Trump and Republicans to sweep the White House and Congress.
These voters have genuine fears of another Trump presidency and its potentially generations-long impact on society, with the potential for a Republican-controlled Congress and a radically reshaped federal judiciary stuffed with Republican appointees, all the way up to the Supreme Court, that could fundamentally reshape how Americans live their lives.
Asked by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos how he would feel if Trump is elected, and everything that he has warned about comes to pass, Biden said that “as long as I gave it my all, and I did as good a job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”
Biden insists that his record in office is enough to save him, and he has grown combative with a press that he feels is failing to treat Trump’s avalanche of lies and mental fitness with the same level of scrutiny.
On a recent Zoom call with a group of House Democrats, Biden reportedly grew defensive over his foreign policy achievements and told members of Congress to do a “better job” of communicating them to voters, who have more pressing concerns about their finances and the state of democracy.
Democrats are navigating a moment with no clear historical precedent in convincing a sitting president to drop out of his own re-election campaign within a few months before Election Day, but the stakes are enormous, with head-to-head polls all trending towards Biden nosediving.
“We’re close to the end,” a person close to Biden told NBC News.
“They’re finally realizing; it’s a when, not if,” another official said.
Yet in campaign rallies and in interviews over the days that followed, Biden has insisted that he’s not going anywhere.
“When I originally ran, you may remember, I said I was going to be a transitional candidate, and I thought that I would be able to move from this and pass it on to someone else,” he said in an interview with BET this week.
“But I did not anticipate things getting so, so, so divided,” he added. “And quite frankly, I think, the only thing, age brings a little bit of wisdom, and I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done, for the country, in spite of the fact we’re told we couldn’t get it done. But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from it.”
One day after that interview, the 81-year-old president was diagnosed with COVID-19. He stepped out of his motorcade in Las Vegas, unmasked, flashing a thumbs up, before taking his time up the steps of Air Force One. When the plane landed in Delaware, it appeared Secret Service agents had to help him into a car.
If this week wasn’t an “is this the end” moment, it’s not clear there ever will be one.
This story was originally published on July 18 and has been updated with developments
