The leadership of the US Democrats wants to quickly nominate President Biden as a candidate for the US election. However, his support is dwindling: Adam Schiff, a prominent representative of the party, has expressed his doubts.
As the most prominent representative of the Democratic Party to date, Congressman Adam Schiff has called on US President Joe Biden to give up his candidacy for a second term. In a statement for the Los Angeles Times, Schiff appealed to the 81-year-old Biden to “pass the baton”. He has “serious doubts” that Biden can defeat his Republican challenger Donald Trump.
Schiff is one of the most influential members of the Democrats. “Our nation is at a crossroads,” Schiff said. “A second Trump presidency would undermine the foundations of our democracy, and I have serious doubts about the president's ability to defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff added. At the same time, Schiff, who is running for a senatorial seat in November, praised Biden's achievements.
Report: Schiff warned during meetings with donors
The New York Times had previously reported, citing two unnamed people, that Schiff had warned during a meeting with Democratic campaign donors that his party could suffer major losses in the election if Biden continued his re-election campaign. “I think if he is our candidate, we will lose,” Schiff is said to have said at the fundraiser in New York, according to the newspaper. The New York Times also reported that Schiff had warned of a loss of Democratic ability to act in the Senate, where they only have a razor-thin majority thanks to three independent candidates, as well as a missed opportunity to win back the House of Representatives.
Since his disastrous performance in the first televised debate with Trump, Biden has been faced with an ever-growing debate about his mental and physical suitability as a presidential candidate. The assassination attempt on Trump only silenced the discussions for a short time.
Early Biden nomination in early August
Against the backdrop of the debate, leading US Democrats want to stick to plans for an early selection of Biden as candidate for the election. A virtual vote should now take place in the first week of August, according to a letter to members of a committee that sets the rules for the nominating convention planned for mid-August. The letter was written by the co-chairs of the committee, Leah D. Daughtry, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The plans are to be discussed at a meeting of the committee on Friday and decided next week.
The Democrats had originally announced in May that they wanted to choose Biden as their candidate early through a virtual call. The reason was deadlines in the state of Ohio, where candidates had to register by August 7 if their names were to be on the ballot. However, the Democrats will not meet for their nominating convention until August 19-22.
Ohio has since changed its rules, but Biden's campaign team insists that the party should stick to the state's original rule – to ensure that Republicans cannot take legal action to remove the president's name from the Ohio ballot.
Plans trigger anger among Democrats
Just this week, a group of Democrats in the House of Representatives, under the impression of Biden's disastrous TV appearance, expressed “serious concerns” in a letter about the plan to formally elect the incumbent as candidate prematurely.
It would be a “terrible idea” to suppress the debate on Biden's nomination in this way, said the letter, which was intended for the Democratic umbrella organization but has not yet been sent. The critics also warned that early voting could “deeply undermine the morale and unity of the Democrats.”
Poll: Almost two-thirds in favor of Biden’s withdrawal
The declining support for Biden within the party was also reflected in a survey conducted by the AP news agency and the Chicago NORC Center. Almost two-thirds of US Democrats are in favor of Biden withdrawing from the race for the White House. In addition, only about 30 percent of the Democrats surveyed were extremely or very optimistic that Biden was mentally capable of working effectively as president.
The results clearly contradict Biden's statement that the “average Democrats” are still behind him despite his weak performance in the televised debate against Trump. According to the survey, he still had the greatest support among black Democrats. About half of them were in favor of the president sticking to his candidacy. Among white and Hispanic Democrats, the figure was about three in ten respondents.
Opposition to Biden's continued candidacy is particularly strong among younger Democrats. Three-quarters of those under 45 want Biden to step down, compared to about 60 percent of older people. According to the survey, about 60 percent of Democrats also believe that Vice President Kamala Harris would be a good president, while 22 percent think she would be a bad choice.
