REPUBLICAN voters at the RNC in Milwaukee have admitted they “feel sorry” for Joe Biden as it appears the Democrat president may be on the brink of stepping down.
It follows reports Barack Obama has called on his former running mate to reconsider his position after a series of costly gaffes.
The latest polling shows that Biden is trailing his Republican rival in a number of key battleground states that he needs to secure if he is to retain the White House come November.
In the Milwaukee sunshine, where delegates and supporters have gathered to watch Donald Trump deliver his first speech since being formally nominated as the Republican candidate, The U.S. Sun asked around for people’s thoughts on the latest damning Biden news.
“I’m assuming he’s done already,” one Republican delegate from Florida, Armando Chapelli said.
He added that he didn’t think it “made much difference,” who the Democrats selected to replace Biden, whether it was Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, or California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“Most voters will have locked in by now,” he said.
Tyler, a Republican from Iowa, joked that “Obama had been running the country,” behind the scenes throughout Biden’s presidency.
He added that the GOP “had never been this unified,” and that they were going to “leave here tomorrow and hit the ground running and get the vote out.”
“We’re ready,” he said.
Tom, another Iowan Republican, said that whoever replaced Biden was likely to be “a pretty progressive liberal,” adding that “America is done with that agenda.”
He said that he wanted to see Trump’s speech on Thursday announce that the country was “getting back to where we were. America first.”
Bridget, a Republican from California, said in reaction to Biden potentially stepping down: “Well, he does have dementia, he needs to go.”
But she added: “It’s not going to affect the race, Trump’s got this by far.”
She claimed that “everybody can see,” that the Democrats have “their heads buried in the sand.”
And she added that she hoped Trump would “reach out to all Americans” in his speech on Thursday night.
Thursday’s speech by Trump at the Fiserv Center in downtown Milwaukee will also mark his first official address since surviving an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last Saturday.
Donald’s son Eric Trump earlier this week hinted that his father would strike a less bombastic and more somber tone following the shooting last week.
However, this week’s convention has seen dozens of speakers, including Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance, take to the stage to slam Joe Biden as weak and a disaster for America.
Opposition to Biden standing this November again has been rumbling under the surface of the Democrat Party since last month when he was widely seen as having a disastrous performance during his debate with Donald Trump on CNN.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden relationship timeline
Former president Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a decades-long relationship and Obama has always stood behind Joe - apparently until now. Here are the latest developments in their relationship.
- 2005: Obama arrives on Capitol Hill as a freshman Senator.
- 2007: Biden announces his bid for the 2008 presidential election. Biden eventually drops out and is named Obama’s vice-president.
- 2008: Obama and Biden win the election.
- 2010: Biden and Obama start having weekly lunches after Biden’s son Beau suffered a stroke, per People.
- May 2011: Both Biden and Obama approved the mission which resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
- May 30, 2015: Obama delivers the eulogy at Beau Biden’s funeral.
- October 2015: Biden holds a press conference in the Rose Garden saying that he is done running for office, Obama stands close by in support of his friend.
- January 2016: Obama offers to pay the mortgage on Biden’s house after the vice president revealed he can’t pay Beau’s hospital bills.
- 2016: Biden becomes angered after it was revealed that Obama was thinking of replacing him with Hilary Clinton.
- January 2017: Obama surprises Biden by presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom calling him “a lion of American history.”
- January 2020: Former president Obama endorses Biden at a drive-in rally in Flint, Michigan.
- January 20, 2021: Obama and Michelle attend Biden’s inauguration.
- June 19, 2024: Obama, appearing at a star-studded fundraiser for the Democratic party, helps Biden off the stage after questions regarding Biden’s health continue to swirl
- June 28, 2024: Obama releases a post on X in support of Biden after his disastrous debate saying the election is “between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
- June 29, 2024: Obama called in for crisis talks with aid Ron Klain and Democratic fundraiser Dougie Kass as concerns over Joe Biden’s health continue to mount.
- July 18, 2024: Barack Obama tells Democratic allies that he believes that Biden needs to reconsider his candidacy and that his path to victory has become greatly diminished.
The 81-year-old commander-in-chief sounded faint, stumbled over a number of figures, and seemed unable to answer the hosts’ questions.
This was followed by several other costly mistakes, including mistakenly referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
He also mixed up his vice president Kamala Harris with Donald Trump in another embarrassing blunder.
Yesterday, he had to cancel a speech at the last minute after aides claimed he had contracted Covid.
He was later seen gingerly boarding Air Force One without wearing a mask as he returned to his home in Wilmington, Delaware to recover.
Throughout the growing dissent, Biden has insisted that he will stay in the race, that only he can defeat Donald Trump a second time, and that only an “act of God” could convince him to step down.
Reports also claim that Biden’s family, most notably his wife Jill, are pushing him to stand again.
But with many senior Democrats now reportedly calling on him to stand down, including Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and California Congressman Adam Schiff, the avalanche of opposition may be too much for Biden to withstand.
Reports claim he may step down as soon as this weekend if the transition can be handled in a dignified way.
With the Democratic National Convention in Chicago just a month away, senior insiders in the party will be desperate for the issue to be resolved one way or the other before then so that a united front can be put on ahead of November’s election.
How could Biden be removed from race?
Calls for Joe Biden to end his reelection campaign have mounted since his poor presidential debate night performance on June 27
After the debate, the 81-year-old president’s cognitive health concerns were once again a pressing topic among news outlets and his allies in the Democratic Party.
What has Joe Biden said about his future in the race?
- Biden has remained defiant and shot down calls for him to step aside in the upcoming presidential election.
- The Biden administration was forced to deny reports that the president confided to a close ally that he is considering withdrawing from the race.
- In a July 5 interview with ABC News, Biden said that “no one is more qualified” to win the race than him, adding only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to resign.
- On July 8, Biden sent a scathing letter to Congressional DNC members who have called on him to step down.
- “I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” the president wrote.
- Biden proceeded to slam “elites” in a live interview with MSNBC, daring any challenger to run against him.
How could Joe Biden be removed from the ballot?
- Since the June 27 debate night, a growing number of Congressional Democrats have called on Biden to end his reelection campaign.
- So far, five out of the 213 DNC members in Congress have publicly called for Biden to quit the race.
- As Biden continues to emphasize his status in the upcoming election, many are wondering whether the 25th Amendment should be used to oust him.
What is the 25th Amendment?
- The 25th Amendment of the Constitution states the vice president shall replace a president if they die in office or resign or if members of the president’s cabinet declare the president is unable to fulfill the duties of their office.
- Labor Secretary Julie Su, who would need to invoke the 25th Amendment, called the idea “absurd.”