WASHINGTON — The end could be drawing near for President Joe Biden's reelection bid as some of the most influential Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, have expressed concerns about his ability to defeat Donald Trump in November's election.
NBC News reported on Thursday that even people within Biden's camp, who have defended him from some of the calls to drop out of the race, are now of the belief there's not path to win the 2024 presidential election.
"We're close to the end," a person close to Biden told NBC News.
That person, who previously doubted Biden would step aside, acknowledged the decision is still up to the president. However, they joined the array of Biden allies who believe he's close to a point of no return.
"They're finally realizing: It's a when, not if," a senior campaign official reportedly said.
Some high-profile Democrats are concerned about the ramifications of Biden staying in the race, with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi saying Democrats could lose the ability to win the House if he doesn't step aside. With the clock ticking until the Democratic National Convention, there's a critical push to get Biden to reconsider his reelection bid.
Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again this year. Pressed about reports that Biden might be softening to the idea of leaving the race, his deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said Thursday: “He is not wavering on anything.”
Time is of the essence. If Democrats are seriously preparing the extraordinary step of replacing Biden and shifting Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, this weekend will be critical to changing the president's mind, other people familiar with the private conversations said.
Another problem facing Biden's campaign is fundraising. A person with knowledge of the projections told NBC News that Biden's campaign now expects it will raise only 25% of the big donor money it had originally projected for July. That's a further downgrade from the expectation last week that large-dollar fundraising would be down as much as 50%. The money has "dried up," the person said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a close ally of Pelosi, became the latest Democrat to call for Biden to drop out, saying he believes it's time to "pass the torch."
Biden, in a radio interview taped just before he tested positive for COVID-19, dismissed the idea it was too late for him to recover politically, telling Univision's Luis Sandoval that it's still early and that many people don't focus on the election until September.
“All the talk about who’s leading and where and how, is kind of, you know — everything so far between Trump and me has been basically even,” he said in an excerpt of the interview released Thursday morning.
Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.
The president, who has spent the past several days campaigning, had already been scheduled to return to his Delaware beach home even before the diagnosis.
NBC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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