20 Democrats urge Biden, 81, to step aside after poor debate performance against Trump, 78.
\n Washington
\nPresident Joe Biden\u2019s reelection bid was mired in fresh turmoil after news reports that top Democratic leaders had privately pushed him to end his campaign, while Donald Trump was set to accept the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday at his party\u2019s national convention.
\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have all expressed deep concerns directly to Biden in recent days that he will not only lose the White House but also cost the party any chance of winning back the US House of Representatives in the Nov. 5 election, according to reports in multiple news outlets.
\nBiden, 81, has thus far refused to entertain public calls from 20 congressional Democrats to step aside, following a halting performance at his June 27 debate against Trump, 78.
\nHis troubles were compounded on Wednesday when he tested positive for COVID-19 during a campaign visit to Nevada, forcing him to return to his Delaware home to work in isolation.
\nMeanwhile, Trump will cap the four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with his first public address since he survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday, in which a bullet grazed his ear.
\nThe convention has put Republican unity on display in contrast to the divisions roiling Democrats. Trump\u2019s former top rivals for the nomination, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, offered strong endorsements of his candidacy despite their past criticisms.
\nSenator J.D. Vance, Trump\u2019s running mate and another former critic-turned-loyalist, presented himself on Wednesday as the son of a neglected industrial Ohio town who will fight for the working class if elected in November.
\nIn chronicling his hardscrabble journey from a difficult childhood to the U.S. Marines, Yale Law School, venture capitalism and the U.S. Senate, Vance, 39, introduced himself to Americans while using his story to argue he understands their everyday struggles.
\n\u201cI grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts,\u201d Vance said. \u201cBut it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America\u2019s ruling class in Washington.\u201d
\nAs the first millennial on a major party ticket, Vance, who has embraced Trump\u2019s mixture of conservative populism and isolationist foreign policy, is well positioned to be the future leader of the Make America Great Movement.
\nIn a sign of his potential value to the ticket, he also appealed to the working and middle classes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin specifically\u2013three Rust Belt swing states likely to decide the Nov. 5 election.
\nVance\u2019s prime-time debut, less than two years after assuming his first public office, caps a meteoric rise. He is one of several high-profile Republicans, such as US Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, whose transformations from critics to loyalists have underscored Trump\u2019s takeover of the party.
\nFor Trump\u2019s political opponents, his hold on the party portends a darker moment in which he follows through on his promises to expand the power of the presidency, exact revenge on his enemies and threaten longstanding democratic institutions.
\nVance would advance \u201can agenda that puts extremism and the ultra wealthy over our democracy,\u201d the Biden campaign said on Wednesday.
\nVance has opposed military aid for Ukraine and defended Trump\u2019s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
\nHis speech embraced many of Trumpism\u2019s core tenets, promising to prioritize domestic manufacturing over Chinese imports and warning allies they would no longer get \u201cfree rides\u201d in securing world peace.
\nThe evening\u2019s other speakers often engaged in vitriolic attacks against Biden, in contrast to the tone of national unity that Trump had promised in the wake of the shooting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
20 Democrats urge Biden, 81, to step aside after poor debate performance against Trump, 78. Washington President Joe Biden\u2019s reelection bid was mired in fresh turmoil after news reports that top Democratic leaders had privately pushed him to end his campaign, while Donald Trump was set to accept the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-419157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n