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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited President Joe Biden at his Rehoboth Beach home last weekend and urged him to drop his presidential bid, multiple sources now say.
The hosts of the Ruthless Podcast said during a taping at the Republican National Convention Tuesday that Schumer had been driven to Biden’s house in Delaware and told the president to quit.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reported a similar story Wednesday night calling it ‘a blunt one-on-one conversation’ and said that the top Senate Democrat ‘forcefully made the case that it would be best if Biden bowed out of the race.’
But Schumer’s office continues to sow doubt that the conversation went down that way.
‘Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday,’ a spokesperson told DailyMail.com Wednesday evening.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited President Joe Biden at his Rehoboth Beach home last weekend and urged him to drop his presidential bid, multiple sources now say
President Joe Biden departs Las Vegas Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19 amid calls from prominent Democrats to drop out of the race
Biden was briefly in Rehoboth last weekend after campaigning in Detroit Friday.
He departed his beachhouse Saturday night and returned to the White House after his rival, former President Donald Trump, was shot at a Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally.
The assassination attempt on Trump seemed to dull the calls for Biden to drop his reelection bid, but in the background Democrats were still holding those discussions.
ABC also reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivered a similar message to Biden as Schumer did when they met last week.
Jeffries’ letter to his colleagues didn’t indicate what the No. 1 House Democrat pushed the president to do.
A spokesperson for Jeffries told ABC that the letter ‘speaks for itself.’
‘It was a private conversation that will remain private,’ the spokesperson said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told the network that Biden ‘told both 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.’
The New York Times reported Tuesday that California Rep. Adam Schiff, who’s on track to win a U.S. Senate seat in November, told a crowd Saturday at a Hamptons fundraiser that he didn’t believe Biden could win – and that the president’s unpopularity could kill Democrats’ chances in the House and Senate too.
Schiff decided to make those comments publicly on Wednesday.
‘While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,’ Schiff said in a statement. ‘And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.’
Since Biden had his disastrous debate performance late last month, he’s appeared to dig his heels in.
During a follow-up interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the Catholic president said that only ‘the Lord almighty’ would remove him from that course.
In an interview released Wednesday with BET, Biden added that a health concern would potentially persuade him to abandon the bid.
‘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 amid a multi-day campaign trip to Las Vegas, Biden tested positive for COVID-19.
A statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president was only experiencing ‘mild’ symptom and would isolate at home in Delaware.
His campaign tried to make the most of it by sending out a fundraising email with the subject line ‘I’m sick …’
The body of the email then explained, ‘…of Elon Musk trying to buy this election for himself and his billionaire buddies.’
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, Musk endorsed Trump and said he’d funnel millions into a MAGA-aligned PAC.
‘P.S. On a more serious note, I did just test positive for COVID today. But don’t worry too much about me. I’m doing just fine, and I’m still as committed as ever to holding Donald Trump and his rich cronies accountable,’ the Biden campaign message also read.
Behind-the-scenes, CNN quoted a senior adviser Wednesday night saying that Biden has grown ‘more receptive’ to the idea of pulling the plug on his reelection hopes – asking advisers if they believe Vice President Kamala Harris can win.
He’ll now have more time to make that decision.
An original plan to have Democratic delegates nominate the president virtually in late July due to Ohio having an early ballot deadline has been delayed.
Ohio’s rules were changed, but in addition the DNC bowed to pressure from Democrats worried about Biden staying at the top of the ticket with the plan, as of Wednesday, to now hold a virtual vote the first week of August.
The Democratic National Convention, where a nominee is traditionally selected, will take place in Chicago from August 19-22.
