A panic pressure campaign is pounding Biden. It has been relentless — and coordinated.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
told Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Saturday — the day of the assassination attempt on Trump — that it would be best if he dropped out,
ABC News first reported. Dems on Capitol Hill want him out, and worry they'll lose winnable seats if not.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a mastermind of the campaign to get Biden out,
told him that he could
destroy Democrats' chances of taking back the House. We're told she's also worried about donations drying up.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)
delivered a similar, if more subtle, message to Biden.
Former President Obama has spoken loudly with his silence — and his
former aidestrashing Biden in public.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are doing what Obama's doing. So are their
former aides.
We increasingly hear top Biden aides, including ones who initially urged him to fight on after his disastrous debate on June 27 — 21 days ago — are saying it's now when, not if, Biden announces he's not running.
Between the lines: Democratic insiders were hoping to avoid this. They love and respect Biden and appreciate his historic accomplishments.
As we told you in a "Behind the Curtain" column
18 days ago, a Democratic official said Biden "will not be dragged off the stage ... The goal is to let him walk off the stage."
But he wouldn't take the hints, loud as they got. So it's come to this. "He's forcing people who like him and respect him to resort to trying to shame him," a well-known Democrat close to the West Wing told us.