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President Joe Biden’s family has reportedly begun discussing what his potential exit from the 2024 presidential race could look like.
The considerations include Biden’s health, his family and the stability of the country, and any decision should help the Democratic Party beat former President Donald Trump and be worthy of Biden’s long career as an elected official, which spans over half a century, NBC News reported on Friday morning.
Those family members reportedly include first lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter, and his sister, Valerie Owens.
Publicly, the Biden campaign has been insisting for days that he will not be dropping out, and White House spokesman Andrew Bates denied the Biden family is having any such discussions.
“That is not happening, period,” Bates told NBC. “The individuals making those claims are not speaking for his family or his team — and they will be proven wrong. Keep the faith.”
Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Friday morning, “Absolutely the president is still in this race. You’ve heard him say that time and time again.”
On Thursday, Biden campaign senior advisor TJ Ducklo tried to dispel rumors as well.
“Joe Biden is his party’s nominee. He’s the President of the United States. He’s running for reelection,” Ducklo posted on X on Thursday.
“Baseless conjecture from anonymous sources isn’t a scoop,” Ducklo said, apparently referring to reports that senior members of Congress had met with Biden and advised him to step aside.
On Wednesday, it leaked that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had both met with Biden in person and reportedly told him he should end his re-election campaign for the good of the country.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also reportedly told the president privately that he cannot win in November and could even ruin Democrats’ chances of winning the House if he stays in the race.
Meanwhile, nearly 30 congressional Democrats have gone public with calls for the president to drop out of the race, including at least five more members of the House just on Friday.
Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Thursday that it is time for Biden to “pass the torch.”
So far, three senators have called on the president to drop out, Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), and Senator Peter Welch (D-NV).
Several celebrities have called on Biden to leave the race as well, most notably actor George Clooney, who hosted a massive fundraiser for Biden before his disastrous debate performance last month. After the debate, Clooney penned an op-ed in The New York Times saying Biden must “voluntarily step aside” to “save democracy.”
Former President Donald Trump currently leads Biden nationally by three percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. He also leads in eight swing states: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.
At this time in 2020, Biden was leading Trump by 8.6 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
The reports of the Biden family’s discussions come a day after Trump addressed the Republican National Convention and officially accepted the party’s nomination.
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