Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on Democrats calling for Biden to end his re-election campaign for President

Joe Biden is continuing to insist on staying in the presidential race, despite escalating calls for him to end his re-election campaign. 

Four more Democrats currently in Congress have voiced their belief that Biden needs to step down during a recent phone call.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says it's unclear who could replace Biden at this point in the campaign. 

"You have the other Democrats who are saying - okay, that would mean Kamala Harris would have to step up and slide into the role vacated by Biden. But she just doesn't have the it-factor."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:03):
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Pressure is continuing to mount on US President Joe Biden
to step down on the next election. During a leadership
call over night, a number of senior House Democrats agreed
that Biden should step aside. Following his disastrous debate last week.
The president has been trying to clear his name doing
media interviews, and a pre recorded sit down with ABC News,
we hear addressed allegations of being unfit for office.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's a bad episode. No one a kids, very serious condition.
I was exhausted. I didn't listen to my hands thinks
in terms of preparents and bad names.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Dan Mitchinson is a US correspondent and he joins me, now.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
How you doing, Dan, Hi franchise are good.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
How much influence do these Democrats have, the ones who
were speaking out behind closed.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Doors, Well quite a bit. I mean, if you're to
believe reports, they're about a half dozen of these top
members of the House that held this meeting today and
basically they're saying that we have to get Joe Biden
to withdraw from this election. And mister Biden spent the
day at a number of campaign rallies where he was

(01:12):
joking again about his age. But there are, you know,
just more and more people that don't think he has
a chance at this point to be Donald Trump. So
over in this corner you have the other Democrats who
are saying, okay, that would mean Kamala Harris would have
to step up and slide into the role vacated by Biden.
But she just doesn't have the it factor. I mean,

(01:33):
some polls show right now that she's ahead of mister Biden,
maybe by two or three points, but she hasn't had
the support of Democrats that she really needs. And yet
you can't really bypass her because that's never been done.
Even if you have somebody like California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom,
who's been circling this party for some time, despite him
saying he's not and will likely run in the election

(01:54):
in twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Dan Joe Biden seems very steed fast. I you know,
I don't know if you'll go call is going to
continue literally until eleakhand I do you.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Think, well, I think so. I think we're going to
have to find something out in the next couple of weeks.
I mean, you've got Adam Smith, who's the ranking member
of the Armed Services Committee. You've got Jim Heimes Connecticut,
he's a ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. I mean,
you know, they want to give mister Bien room to
exit the race on his own terms before they make
a call for him to do so. But they're also

(02:23):
aware that there may be no way at this point
to prove to voters that he's he's not too old
for this task. But I think what's really interesting too,
and there was you know a number of health experts
have talked about this on the on the talk shows
over the weekend here on TV that said, how we're
talking about Bien right now treating his age as systematic
to a growing problem in our country agism. And he's

(02:44):
got symptoms that you know are basically textbook cases that
you find as people get older. It's wait response time
and you can't find the words and so on. So
you combine that with little sleep and if you really
did have a cold, like he said, you know, they're
saying that anybody over the age of forty or four
I would problem.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And I don't think that that debate is going to
stop as it Dan Hey, thank you for the update.
Really appreciated. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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