The campaign to replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket appeared to gain major momentum this week, as high-ranking Democrats publicly called on the president to drop out and others made their feelings known through not-so-back channels. Yet according to the campaign, Biden is absolutely staying in the race—and those trying to push him out should take a long, hard look in the mirror.
“Can we all just remember for a minute that these same people who are trying to push Joe Biden out are the same people who literally gave us all Donald Trump,” a source close to Biden told NBC News. “In 2015, [Barack] Obama, [Nancy] Pelosi, [Chuck] Schumer pushed Biden aside in favor of Hillary [Clinton]; they were wrong then, and they are wrong now.” Noting the polls that showed Clinton up by as much as nine points, the source added: “How did all this work out for everyone in 2016? Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from 2016; one of them is polls are BS—just ask Secretary Clinton. And two, maybe, just maybe, Joe Biden is more in touch with actual Americans than Obama-Pelosi-Schumer?”
Speaking to Politico, a former Biden campaign and administration aide declared: “People who have known this man for 30, 40 years are stabbing this man in the front and the back.… They are Julius Caesar–ing this man.” For his part, Biden is said to feel “angry” and “personally hurt and betrayed by the way so many Democrats...have left him hung out to dry,” according to NBC News. And, despite reports earlier this week that the president has “become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his reelection bid,” he apparently has not changed his mind.
Appearing on MSNBC this morning, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told Morning Joe said Biden is “in this to win this” and believes “he can do this.”
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Unfortunately for Biden, clearly not everyone agrees. On Friday, four more House Democrats publicly called on him to “pass the torch.”
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And according to NBC News, there may be a “bigger push” from the party if Biden doesn’t drop out by Monday. On Friday, Biden, who is in isolation in Delaware after testing positive for COVID, said he will get “back on the campaign trail next week” to defend “my own record and the vision that I have for America.”
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