Biden faces intensified calls to step aside while ill with covid

Joe Biden can't catch a break.

It seemed like things couldn't get much worse for the president after he was diagnosed Wednesday with Covid-19, dashing his hopes of counter-programming the Republican National Convention by forcing him to cancel an appearance before a key Latino advocacy group.

Then, the dam broke. A flood of leaks detailed senior leaders in the Democratic Party warning Biden personally that he was unlikely to defeat Donald Trump and was putting his congressional allies at great risk.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a blunt assessment to Biden that it would be better if he bowed out of the race, ABC News reported. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the president his candidacy was imperilling Democrats' hopes of holding on to control of either chamber of Congress, the Washington Post said. And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden in a private conversation he couldn't defeat Trump, according to CNN.

Those private implorations were met by public signals Democrats remain unconvinced that Biden's campaign is viable. Earlier Wednesday, Adam Schiff – the California congressman and Democratic candidate in that state's US Senate race – restarted the drumbeat of allies calling for Biden to exit the race, urging him to "pass the torch."

Separately, Schumer and Jeffries worked to end run a bid by some Biden allies to hold an early virtual roll call. Had the effort succeeded, Biden could have formalised his nomination in the coming days, helping to quell the uprising.

Instead, the president retreated to isolate both physically and metaphorically at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, searching alone for how to right a campaign plunged again into chaos.

At the White House, spokesman Andrew Bates insisted that Biden was full steam ahead.

Biden told the congressional leaders "he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families," Bates said in a statement.

But the president's Covid episode removes him from the campaign trail and thrusts his health back into the spotlight — all at a critical moment when he is trying desperately to prove that concerns over his age and mental acuity are overblown.

And Biden stoked the melodrama even more by suggesting in a BET interview taped Tuesday that he would consider dropping out of the race if new health issues emerged — and that he'd be open to passing the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris if new medical conditions emerged during a second term.

Even Biden's allies were struggling to defend the president. Senator Bernie Sanders, among a group of progressives who have rallied to Biden's defence in recent days, conceded in an interview with the New Yorker that Biden had trouble completing sentences.

Even worse, Biden's struggles played out against scenes from the GOP convention, where the Republican nominee Trump appeared on stage for a walk-through sporting a bandaged ear from the unsuccessful assassination attempt he survived last weekend.

Trump's defiant, fist-pumping response to the shooting proved instantly iconic, galvanising voices of doubt within the Republican Party behind his cause. On Tuesday night, former primary foes Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis took to the stage in Milwaukee to lay out their argument for supporting Trump's candidacy.

The events contributed to a growing sense of two campaigns headed in opposite directions: one on the rise and the other in turmoil.

Public opinion polls underscore reason for Democrats to be concerned.

Nearly two-thirds of Biden's own party say he should withdraw from the race, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released hours before Biden's Covid diagnosis. Just three in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident in his ability to serve effectively as president.

Off the Rails

Biden had hoped to reverse those perceptions over a three-day trip that quickly flew off the rails.

The president originally planned to travel on Monday to Austin, Texas, to deliver remarks marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. The White House had seen the address as an opportunity for Biden to link himself to previous Democratic efforts to expand protections for minorities, while painting Trump as enabling new restrictions on abortion and voting rights.

But that event was scrapped in the aftermath of Saturday's shooting at the Trump rally, and a planned interview with NBC News was moved to the White House. Without the event as a backdrop, the interview devolved into a tense and combative exchange focused largely on Biden's rhetoric and questions over his age.

"Sometime come and talk to me about what we should be talking about," Biden told NBC anchor Lester Holt at the conclusion. "OK? The issues."

Biden resumed campaign events Tuesday with an appearance at the NAACP's national convention, but quickly bungled the centrepiece of his speech: a new proposal to cap rent increases by corporate landlords at 5% annually.

Instead, Biden appeared to struggle to read his teleprompter, eventually saying the limit would be $55.

Medical Condition

After the event, BET News released excerpts from an interview with Biden where he appeared to open the door to reconsidering his reelection bid if doctors advised it.

"If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem," Biden said.

On Wednesday, things didn't improve. Biden held a call with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood executive leading his fundraising effort, and was told that donations were drying up over concerns about his age, Semafor reported. Katzenberg subsequently issued a statement to the outlet calling it a "misread of a private meeting."

The president then went to tape a radio interview with Univision but left it feeling unwell. A Covid test confirmed his infection and the president quickly spirited back to the Las Vegas airport to return to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

About the only positive news for the president was that his symptoms were mild, according to the White House: a runny nose, cough, and — appropriately enough — "general malaise."

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.