An influential US senator on Sunday joined calls for President Joe Biden to end his candidacy in favour of a younger Democrat, while a shock poll from the swing state of Michigan illustrated the growing sense that he will lose to Donald Trump if he stays in the race.
"I came to this decision with a heavy heart, but I think it's time to pass the torch to a new generation," Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat-leaning independent from West Virginia, said on CNN.
The call from a longtime friend of the president's reinforced a swell of increasingly urgent pleas from top party officials for the 81-year-old Biden to step aside as signs mount of his eroding support.
Biden's ability to fight back has been limited; he has been isolating with Covid at his Delaware home since Wednesday, his health said to be improving but his public face limited to a series of attacks on Trump on social media.
Poll reults
Meantime, a new poll from the battleground state of Michigan – where Trump, his right ear bandaged from the recent attempt on his life, held a raucous rally Saturday – carried grim news for the president.
The poll, which began the day Trump was wounded at a Pennsylvania rally and ended as he was accepting his party's nomination in Milwaukee, found Trump leading Biden 49% to 42% in a state the Democrat carried four years ago by 3% points.
The Epic-MRA poll showed Trump doubling his lead since the last poll June 27, just before the presidential debate that proved disastrous for the president. The survey even gave Trump a narrow lead in metropolitan Detroit, normally safe Democratic territory.
Yet another poll, by ABC News and Ipsos, showed Trump enjoying his highest national favourability ratings in years – at 40%, up from the mid-30s – propelled no doubt by the successful Republican convention and a surge of sympathy following the attempt on his life.
Furious speculation
The seeming crush of bad news for Biden has given rise to furious speculation about what he might do – and who, if he steps aside, might replace him.
Vice President Kamala Harris is seen by many as a logical replacement, but several Democrats favour an approach that would allow her, and a shortlist of rising party stars, to make their case.
Manchin, in his CNN appearance, called for an "open process," citing what he said was the party's deep bench of talent.
By stepping aside, Manchin added, Biden could use his remaining months in office to "unite our country" and "help bring the world together."
'Legal hurdles'
Some Republicans, meanwhile, are already pushing back against such a late-in-the-campaign anointment.
Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, told CNN that Democrats would face "legal hurdles" in some states and have "a real problem."
Vice President Harris has drawn increasing scrutiny by both sides.
The Trump campaign reportedly is already preparing lines of attack.
'I stand with Biden'
Even some Democrats who have been strong Biden supporters have begun carefully hedging their comments, unsure how the fraught situation might play out.
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, a Black lawmaker who gave Biden a crucial endorsement in 2020, told CNN, "I support Joe Biden and he will be the nominee if he stays in the race."
Asked if Biden was the best candidate to take on Trump, he replied, "I believe he is as good as they get," but then added: "Is he the only one? No, he is not the only one."
"I stand with him until he changes his mind."
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