'We're close to the end': Biden world braces for the possibility that the president will step aside  (2024)

WASHINGTON —President Joe Biden’s political world is collapsing. Top allies have either publicly or privately called on him to step aside. Major donations have fallen off a cliff. Grassroots fundraising is not keeping up with the demands of a campaign that needs to aggressively scale up three months before the presidential election. Members of his own re-election effort have already declared he has no path to victory.

Since a disastrous debate in Atlanta upended the trajectory of his campaign three weeks ago, Biden has again and again attempted to dig in, bucking efforts to dislodge him from power.

But there is now a palpable sense that the ground has shifted underneath him, according to five people with knowledge of the situation, even among some of the president’s most defiant internal backers who now believe the writing is on the wall.

“We’re close to the end,” a person close to Biden said.

That person, who previously doubted Biden would ever step aside, acknowledged that it’s still the president’s decision but joined in the array of Biden allies who say he is nearing a point of no return.

As the extraordinary events have unfolded, the president tested positive with Covid on Wednesday and retreated to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, taking him off the campaign trail. Once again, it offered a sharp contrast with former President Donald Trump, who, even after his brush with death on Saturday, will appear at araucous coronation at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night.

Also Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for the Senate in California, made a remarkable public call for the president to abandon the nomination, a move that ended up exposing that other Democratic leaders — including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, and Sen. Chuck Schumer — had brought dire concerns, supported by polling, to the president indicating that he risked taking down control of Congress with him if he stayed on the same path.

In the hours after the assassination attempt on Trump last weekend, some Democrats said — even feared — that the calls for Biden to step aside would be “frozen” as the president dealt with a national crisis. But that faded quickly. Some allies now say that the shooting, which has caused an even more intense rallying around Trump within his party, only makes it more glaringly obvious that the nagging narrative of whether Biden is on a cognitive decline cannot win the White House.

A person with knowledge of the projections said the Biden campaign now expects it will raise only 25% of the big donor money it had originally projected to raise in July — that’s a further downgrade from the expectation last week that large-dollar fundraising would be down by as much as 50%. The money has “dried up,” this person said.

One Democratic lawmaker on Wednesday said if Biden didn’t agree to step aside, the cacophony of calls will grow only louder, with more lawmakers expected to urge him to do so. The lawmaker called it a “sad moment” for the party.

A sense of reality is beginning to wash over some of the president’s top campaign lieutenants, who have endured streams of phone calls from donors and one-time supporters flagging that they can no longer back Biden.

A person who spoke with a senior campaign official said a sense of a new reality has fallen over the campaign.

“They’re finally realizing: It’s a when, not if,” the person said.

There has been a shift behind the scenes in the president’s openness to stepping aside, according to multiple people close to Biden, despite his aggressive insistence in public appearances and private phone calls with allies that he is not going anywhere.

Biden had already, in the opinion of some aides, shown signs that if he were convinced there was no path “he would not go forward with this,” a person with knowledge of the president’s conversations with aides said.

NBC News previously reported that Biden’s private conversations with aides had grown more “reality-based” and included talk of how his legacy could be defined by his having a prolonged stalemate with his own party or by losing the White House to Donald Trump, who Biden has repeatedly warned is a danger to American democracy.

Outwardly, campaign officials remain steadfast in their assertion that Biden isn’t going anywhere.

“The president is feeling fine. He is self-isolating in Delaware,” Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager for the Biden campaign, said at a news conference in Milwaukee. “Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee.”

Since a televised debate on June 27 at which Biden appeared confused, at times unable to complete a sentence, his every move has been scrutinized. Biden accelerated his usually severely limited media exposure to demonstrate he can make a cogent argument for re-election.

“I’m old,” Biden told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview on Monday. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, No. 1. And No. 2, my mental acuity’s been pretty damn good. I’ve gotten more done than any president has in a long, long time in 3½ years. So I’m willing to be judged on that.”

But rather than allay concerns, Biden’s exposure only intensified them among allies. Biden has stumbled, mixing up names and seeming to lose his train of thought.

Before coming off the trail on Wednesday, for instance, Biden mistakenly called Nevada’s Democratic state attorney general the state’s governor, who is a Republican, according to a pool report of the exchange.

“Sad,” is how one close Biden ally described the dynamic around the president.

“There’s no excitement in this campaign at all,” another ally said.

Some Biden aides have cautioned that the campaign has picked up on some voter anger in battleground states over the feeling that people are trying to chase the president they voted for off the ballot.

And even as calls for Biden to step aside grow louder, a campaign official said that, as of this past weekend, no one had yet presented a detailed plan for an alternative to Biden.

In an interview that aired Wednesday evening, Biden said that, in addition to being shown that there was no path to victory, there was something else that would prompt him to re-evaluate his campaign.

“If I have some medical condition that emerged,” Biden suggested. “If somebody, if the doctors came to me and said you got this problem, that problem.”

Carol E. Lee and Monica Alba reported from Washington; Natasha Korecki reported from Chicago.


Natasha Korecki

Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Carol E. Lee

Carol E. Lee is the Washington managing editor.

Monica Alba

Monica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.

Kristen Welker

and

Jillian Frankel

contributed

.

'We're close to the end': Biden world braces for the possibility that the president will step aside  (2024)

FAQs

'We're close to the end': Biden world braces for the possibility that the president will step aside ? ›

“We're close to the end,” a person close to Biden said. That person, who previously doubted Biden would ever step aside, acknowledged that it's still the president's decision but joined in the array of Biden allies who say he is nearing a point of no return.

Did Biden pull out of the 2024 election? ›

The president's decision plunges the Democratic Party into an unprecedented scramble to choose a new nominee at the 11th hour.

What has Biden done as president of the United States? ›

But what has he achieved since taking office in January 2021? Almost immediately after taking office, Joe Biden signed two executive orders to reinstate the Affordable Care Act. He described it as "undoing the damage Trump had done" after Mr Trump made failed attempts to repeal 'Obamacare'.

Is Biden running for president again? ›

Biden drops out of the 2024 presidential race, endorses Vice President Kamala Harris for nomination.

What are the presidential odds? ›

Latest Election Odds
CandidateLatest Election OddsImplied % Chance
Donald Trump+12045.5%
Joe Biden+20033.3%
Nikki Haley+16005.9%
Michelle Obama+17005.6%
5 more rows

Who was the last President to drop out of the race? ›

When was the last time an incumbent president did not run for reelection? Biden's announcement made him the first sitting president to end a reelection campaign since Lyndon B. Johnson in March of 1968. The only other president in the past 75 years to call off his campaign was Harry Truman, who did it in March of 1952.

How can a president run again? ›

The amendment prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected again. Under the amendment, someone who fills an unexpired presidential term lasting more than two years is also prohibited from being elected president more than once.

What did president Biden do for a living? ›

Early life and career of Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Biden in 1965, while a student at the University of Delaware
BornJoseph Robinette Biden Jr. November 20, 1942 Scranton, Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Politician Lawyer
Years active1968–present

What can the president of the United States do? ›

During his tenure, the President is Commander in Chief of United States Armed Forces and is empowered to make treaties and appointments within the federal government (with Senate approval). He is also required to report to Congress annually on the state of the union, and may also propose legislation and veto bills.

What is Biden doing? ›

President Biden will take steps to restore America's standing in the world, strengthening the U.S. national security workforce, rebuilding democratic alliances across the globe, championing America's values and human rights, and equipping the American middle class to succeed in a global economy.

Who is the vice president with Joe Biden? ›

On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President – the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected to this position.

Who are the leaders of the Democratic Party? ›

LEADERSHIP
  • Jaime Harrison. DNC Chair.
  • Governor Gretchen Whitmer. DNC Vice Chair.
  • Senator Tammy Duckworth. DNC Vice Chair.
  • Henry R. Muñoz III. DNC Vice Chair.
  • Congressman Cedric Richmond. DNC Senior Advisor.
  • Ken Martin. ASDC Chair, DNC Vice Chair.
  • Jason Rae. DNC Secretary.
  • Virginia McGregor. DNC Treasurer.

Where is Biden from? ›

Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden moved with his family to Delaware in 1953.

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