LAST UPDATE | 10 Jul
DEMOCRATIC PARTY VETERAN Nancy Pelosi has said that time is running out for US President Joe Biden to make a final decision on his reelection bid, but stressed the call was his to make.
Despite Biden insisting he is staying in the race, Pelosi – the former speaker of the House of Representatives and an influential voice in the party – suggested the president still could step aside amid a Democratic divide over his candidacy.
“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she told MSNBC.
“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because the time is running short.”
Pelosi stopped short of advocating either way on the Biden question.
“I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that’s the way it is,” she said. “Whatever he decides, we go with.”
Actor George Clooney has weighed into the debate about Biden’s staying in the race with an opinion piece in the New York Times today, in which he argued the incumbent should drop out.
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” said the Ocean’s Eleven star.
Clooney, a longtime Democratic supporter and fundraiser, wrote:
“I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.
“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw.”
Biden, 81, has corralled much-needed support from some top Democrats, but several elected members of the party have publicly expressed concerns about his mental fitness after his disastrous debate performance last month against Republican challenger and former president Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election. And maybe win it by a landslide and take with it the Senate and the House,” Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet tells me in a very newsy interview. “I think we could lose the whole thing and it’s staggering to me.” pic.twitter.com/k0M97PntVA
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 10, 2024
Seven House Democrats have openly called on Biden to not seek reelection. A handful of senators have also expressed concerns.
Yesterday, Colorado’s Michael Bennet became the first Senate Democrat to publicly turn on the president, saying Biden would lose if he stayed on the ballot – and perhaps cause congressional Democrats to lose as well.
“Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide and take with it the Senate and the House,” Bennet told CNN, adding he believes the White House “has done nothing” to demonstrate they have a plan to win in November.
CNN’s Dana Bash reported yesterday that senators Bennet, Sherrod Brown and Jon Tester told colleagues at a Democratic caucus lunch that they did not believe that Biden can win the election.
With concerns over Biden’s ability to keep his campaign on track, all eyes will be on the President’s press conference at the NATO summit in Washington tomorrow, where he will have to respond to questions from reporters.
Since the debate against Trump, Biden has appeared at campaign events and has done one media interview with Democrat-friendly TV network MSNBC.
Biden insisted that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to drop out of the race.
In that interview, Biden was asked how he would feel if he stayed in race but ultimately failed to defeat Trump, who he has characterised as a threat to democracy.
“I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” the president replied, a comment that hardly set Democratic voters’ minds at ease.
George Stephanopoulos, the journalist who interviewed Biden, has since been caught saying he doesn’t believe Biden can continue to serve as president.
“I don’t think he can serve four more years,” Stephanopoulos said, in what he later described as a candid moment.
“The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before,” Clooney said in his opinion piece.
Biden also called into MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme to say he was “not going anywhere”.
Biden insisted he still had the support of the Democratic Party.
“I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t absolutely believe that I’m the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024,” he said.
With reporting from AFP
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