Top Democrats have given Joe Biden one week to win Democrats back over or step down, according to reports.
Democrat insiders and donors have told Biden privately that “he has a week to win over Democrats or they will move to oust him after a disastrous performance in the first presidential debate,” The Telegraph reported Friday.
From The Telegraph:
One congressman told Matthew Yglesias, a US political blogger: “I think the president has one week to prove he is not dead.”
David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, told CNN: “It’s kind of a Defcon 1 moment…they are three years apart, but they seemed about 30 years apart tonight.”
David Axelrod, another Obama adviser, said: “There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
Mark Buell, a well-known Democratic donor, said: “Do we have time to put somebody else in there?”
UK government ministers have also insisted that the White House ditch Biden and replace him with a younger candidate to maintain the “special relationship” between the UK and US.
Meanwhile in the UK, Conservative Cabinet ministers privately called on the Democrats to ditch Mr Biden in surprisingly frank terms in the context of the special relationship.
Three figures sitting around Rishi Sunak’s top table told The Telegraph that Mr Biden should be switched with someone better placed to defeat Donald Trump.
The sources variously called on the Democrats to “get rid” of Mr Biden, to “switch him fast”, saying a younger alternative would have a much better chance of victory.
Given Biden has already effectively locked up the Democrat Party nomination for president with the vast majority of delegates pledged to him, it remains unclear how Democrats would oust him by the time the Democrat National Convention takes place in August.
But the chorus of media outlets and liberal pundits calling for Biden to step down in the wake of Thursday’s debate has been overwhelming.
The New York Times editorial board even called for Biden to be replaced with another candidate.
And a YouGov poll conducted the morning after the debate revealed that 49% of Americans believe Biden must go if the Democrats want to win, whereas only 30% believe he should remain the Democrat nominee.
Despite the widespread panic among Democrats, other top figures in the party like former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, along with Hillary Clinton, issued statements doubling down on their support of Biden.
