Biden’s fit-for-office claims falling flat with Democratic voters: Poll

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden’s campaign for a second term faced new headwinds Wednesday as a majority of Democrats — and one prominent lawmaker — agree he should drop out of the race.

AnAP-NORC Center survey released Wednesday revealed 65% of Democrats believe Biden should let his party pick a new nominee. Only 35% of the party’s voters said Biden should stay in the race amid decreasing satisfaction with his candidacy.

Hours after the poll was released, California Representative Adam Schiff said Biden should drop out. In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Schiff praised Biden’s tenure as president but said it was time for Biden to pass the torch.

“A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff wrote.

Schiff, who is running for one of California’s U.S. Senate seats, told party donors over the weekend that Democrats in Congress are likely to suffer overwhelming losses if Biden stays in the race, according to reports on the private meeting.

Biden claimed that elites and pundits led the discontent in the party following his June 27 debate performance.

“Fourteen million people voted for me to be the nominee in the Democratic Party. OK? I listen to them,” Biden said in an interview with NBC.

But Wednesday’s poll appears to rebut Biden’s argument that voters want him to be the party’s nominee. Disapproval from voters comes amid Democrats in Congress renewed calls for Biden to step down.

Over 20 Democratic lawmakers have now called on Biden to withdraw from the race. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Biden to discuss lawmakers’ concerns about his candidacy. Jeffries did not say if he advised Biden to step down.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump quieted growing calls for Biden to leave the race but speculation of a virtual roll call to lock in his candidacy ignited new scrutiny. Lawmakers reportedly circulated a letter on Tuesday calling for a delay in the Democratic National Committee’s nominating process.

Lawmakers said they’ve been leaning on Representative Nancy Pelosi as a guide through the crisis, according to reports. Some in the party see the former speaker as one of the few with enough influence to get through to Biden.

Former Obama speechwriter and host of Pod Save America Jon Favreau said Biden should pay attention to voters’ opinions even if he still has a chance to win.

“It’s not that Biden can’t win a margin-of-error race in a highly polarized environment where polling errors happen. He can,” Favreau posted on X. “It’s that a clear majority of voters who don’t like Trump keep saying that Biden isn’t their preferred choice and not our best chance. And he still has a few weeks left to listen to them.”

The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate organization, reiterated its call for Biden to drop out of the race after the new poll was released. Biden’s support is lowest among young Democrats.

“This isn’t the kind of position the Democrats should be in headed into November, with Trump on the ballot and our democracy and climate on the line,” the group posted on X.

Immediately after the debate, Biden said only “the lord almighty” could convince him to retire from the race. Biden defiantly dismissed lawmakers’ increased scrutiny of his performance.   During an interview with BET, however, Biden said he’d step down for a health issue.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, the doctors came and said you’ve got this problem, that problem,” Biden said on Tuesday.

While he ran as a transitional candidate in 2020, Biden said didn’t think he could hand over the torch when the country was so divided.

“There’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that,” Biden said.

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