Nancy Pelosi ally Adam Schiff urges Joe Biden to drop out of US presidential race

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The future of Joe Biden’s re-election bid is in doubt again after Senate Leader Chuck Schumer emerged as having “conveyed” his fellow Democrats’ views on his candidacy “directly” to the president and another top Democrat called on him to “pass the torch.”

Adam Schiff, a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who led the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump, issued a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday citing “serious concerns” about whether Biden can defeat Trump in November.

Schiff, who is running for the U.S. Senate, is the first major Democrat to call on Biden to abandon his reelection bid since last week’s assassination attempt on Trump, which prompted many Democrats to halt their campaigns to unseat the president from the top of the ticket.

Schiff’s move has revived pressure on Biden.

ABC News also reported that Schumer, the Senate majority leader and the most powerful Democrat in Congress, asked Biden to drop out of the race during a meeting last Saturday.

Schumer’s office did not dispute the report but called it “empty speculation.” “Party Leader Schumer conveyed his caucus’ views directly to President Biden on Saturday,” it said.

The statement from Schumer’s office came as Biden was forced to cancel a speech in Nevada after testing positive for the coronavirus. He was scheduled to return to Delaware on Wednesday evening. “I feel good,” Biden said before slowly ascending the steps of Air Force One.

On PredictIt, an online prediction marketplace, Biden’s odds of being the Democratic nominee have dropped sharply, while Vice President Kamala Harris’ odds of being the party’s nominee have risen sharply.

Biden’s allies are planning a virtual vote to renominate the president before the Democratic convention in August. If successful, the preemptive nomination could kill any effort to remove the 81-year-old Biden, sparked by the president’s devastating debate performance last month.

Biden’s faltering debate performance has sparked panic among Democratic lawmakers, influential donors and party activists who fear Biden is unable to defeat Trump at the ballot box, or stay in the White House for another four years.

Biden trails Trump in nearly every national poll and in swing states. vote A poll released Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters want him to step down.

But many Democratic lawmakers have been reluctant to voice their concerns publicly. A relatively small number — about two dozen members of Congress so far — have said publicly that they want Biden to step down. Many others have expressed concerns privately and tried to pressure the president behind the scenes.

Schiff’s intervention may signal a change in approach. As a senior member of Congress and close to many Democratic leaders after nearly three decades in Congress, his comments could encourage others to voice their concerns publicly.

Schiff described Biden on Wednesday as “one of the most important presidents in our nation’s history,” but added: “Our nation is at a crossroads.”

The congressman added that “the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone,” but he believes it is time for the president to “pass the torch” and “secure his leadership legacy” by allowing another Democrat to be the party’s nominee for the White House.

Schiff’s decision to appear publicly comes at the same time that two of Congress’s top Democrats, Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s leader in the House, have raised objections to an early roll-call vote. Schumer and Jeffries have urged delaying Biden’s nomination until next month, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Critics within the party accused the DNC of “stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any potential change to the Democratic ticket.”

Some party activists have called for the virtual vote to be held sooner, perhaps as soon as next week.

Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend his re-election campaign. He spoke at a conference of Latin American leaders in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.

A Biden campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schiff’s comments.

Republicans and the Trump campaign sought to capitalize on internal Democratic infighting by projecting an image of party unity at their national convention this week in Milwaukee.

Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, on Wednesday declined invitations for Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, to participate in the vice presidential debate against Kamala Harris, saying his team would wait until it was clear who would be on the party’s presidential ticket.

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