The pressure is building on President Joe Biden to step aside for another Democrat who has a better chance of beating Donald Trump in November. Even former president Barack Obama is reportedly encouraging Biden to give up his reelection campaign.
Behind closed doors, Biden is reported becoming more “receptive” to the idea, but his campaign chair still says he plans to return to the trail next week following a case of COVID.
KNX News Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman checked in with Sacramento-area Democratic Congressman Ami Bera, who also happens to be a long-serving medical doctor. Bera said he’s not concerned about Biden’s cognitive ability to govern, but he expressed doubts about whether the president has a path to victory in November.
“He’s older than he was four years ago. He’s, you know, a little bit slower. He’s never been the best debater. But I don’t have that crystal ball,” he said. “What I'm concerned about is if I'm looking at objective data, if I'm looking at fundraising data that does seem to be drying up some, and he can't win, then it's probably time to make a change.”
Bera acknowledged that time is running out before the Democratic convention in August. He said it “really didn’t make any sense” to change up their nominee while the Republican convention is ongoing, and the president’s COVID diagnosis put conversations on pause as well.
“This is the time for us to all reflect, and, you know, if there's going to be a change, that probably has to come fairly quickly,” he said.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
Bera added that he doesn’t see Biden’s recent embarrassing gaffes, like mixing up the Ukrainian and Russian presidents and referring to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” as a sign of cognitive decline because “he’s done that for a long time.”
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
