However, a further blow came on Wednesday when George Clooney, a long-time Biden donor and supporter, said he should end his campaign because “we are not going to win in November with this president”. Clooney said Mr Biden was not the same man who had fought the 2020 election.
Andrew Bates, Mr Biden’s deputy White House spokesman, denied that his team was looking to replace him. “Unequivocally, this is not true,” he said. “President Biden’s team is strongly behind him.”
Those working on the campaign are concerned that even if the attempt to remove Mr Biden dies down, it will return as soon as he suffers another age-related gaffe. “There’s this general sense of just unbelievable holding your breath every time he does an event, every time he’s with people,” one top Democrat told CNN.
The news channel reported that Mr Biden had not held a full cabinet meeting since last year. One cabinet member said they were “uncertain of Biden’s condition because they so rarely see him”.
On Thursday, it was reported that the president’s team asked a radio station that interviewed him to edit out some of his remarks amid concerns they could embarrass him.
In the interview, Mr Biden reportedly said he had “more blacks in my administration than any other president, all other presidents combined”. It was previously revealed that campaign aides vetted the questions asked, allowing him to script his answers.
The decision to stand down lies with Mr Biden, who won the Democratic primary earlier this year and has the right to collect his party’s nomination next month. If he decided to end his campaign, he could choose to endorse Ms Harris or throw the nomination open in a “contested convention” where other contenders could set out their stall.
Mr Biden avoided any major errors where he met Sir Keir Starmer for the first time earlier this week. The pair joked about England’s 2-1 win over the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi-finals on Wednesday, which Mr Biden attributed to Sir Keir’s leadership.