Pelosi, Clooney, Democrat senators raise new doubts about Biden’s candidacy in 2024 race
- The embattled US president has been trying to stem a growing tide of Democrats saying that he cannot win in November
US President Joe Biden faced fresh doubts about his re-election chances from heavyweights Nancy Pelosi and George Clooney, who may influence other Democratic lawmakers and financial donors, and two Senate Democrats.
Biden must decide quickly whether to stay in the 2024 White House race, former House Speaker Pelosi, a long-time Biden ally, said on MSNBC on Wednesday while declining to say definitively that she wanted him to run.
Hollywood star Clooney, a Democrat who co-hosted a star-studded fundraiser for Biden last month, withdrew his support with a damning opinion piece in The New York Times saying Biden was not the same man he was in 2020.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, has privately signalled to donors he’s open to a Democratic candidate other than Biden, Axios reported. Schumer, though, reiterated his support for Biden in a statement following the Axios report.
Senator Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw in an op-ed published late on Wednesday, the first Democratic senator to explicitly call for the president to step aside.
One major donor said Democratic leaders had indicated they would issue statements of concern after the Nato summit, but did not mention Schumer by name.