Biden bows out: Internal poll and Pelosi's push seal the decision
Portal Politico reports that Biden was persuaded to withdraw from the presidential race by two factors, one of which was the latest internal poll.
22 July 2024 14:48
Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he had decided to withdraw from the electoral race. As he conveyed, he reached this decision over 48 hours, analysing data and polls which indicated that his victory was largely unattainable.
Politico reports that the latest internal Democratic poll was crucial for Biden. For the first time in two months, the party commissioned surveys in key states—the so-called swing states, where neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can ever be sure of their victory. The voting results in these states determine the final outcome in the presidential elections.
The data indicated that Biden "not only loses in all six critical 'swing states', but his support is also decreasing in Virginia and New Mexico", where the Democrats had expected to win and did not intend to spend much on the campaign. Politico's source claims that the current president "struggled with this decision, but once he decided, he started acting quickly".
Pelosi pressed biden to resign
According to Politico informants, Biden's advisors were preparing for Nancy Pelosi's actions. Pelosi was working on convincing other party members to take decisive steps to persuade the president to end the campaign. She even planned to publicise the Democratic poll, showing Biden's difficult political situation.
"Nancy made it clear that this could be done the easy way or not," says Politico's source—a Democrat familiar with the internal party talks. Additionally, at least six Democrats planned to call on Biden to resign from the campaign on Monday or Tuesday.
Before announcing his decision on Sunday, Biden spoke with Vice President Kamala Harris several times. As Politico emphasises, although Harris fares better in polls than other Democrats considered potential candidates, it is hard to talk about her having an advantage over Donald Trump.
One of the latest CBS News/YouGov polls shows that Trump leads Harris by three points (51 per cent to 48 per cent), while Biden was trailing by five points (52 per cent to 47 per cent).
