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Several top Democrats are now saying that President Joe Biden could drop out of the presidential race as soon as this weekend.
Axios reported on the timeline Thursday as Biden recuperates from COVID-19 at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware home.
The president has maintained that he plans to stay in the race, but privately is starting to realize that might be untenable, the report said, as polling shows him losing to former President Donald Trump and surveys show widespread concerns about his age and health.
This week conversations he's had with top Congressional Democrats have leaked out in the press, with reports saying that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries all nudged him out of the race.
They warned Biden that staying in could mean he could cost Democrats Congress as well.
Several top Democrats are now saying that President Joe Biden could drop out of the presidential race as soon as this weekend.
The official line remains that those lawmakers didn't pressure the president to quit.
'Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately met with President Joe Biden a week ago. On behalf of the House Democratic caucus, he directly expressed the full breadth of insight, perspective and conclusions reaached about the path forward - after extensive colleague to colleague discussions,' a spokesperson for Jeffries told ABC News Thursday.
'Any further characterization of the private, one-on-one meeting between President Biden and Leader Jeffries is speculative and uninformed,' the statement continued. 'The letter sent by Leader Jeffries to the House Democratic colleagues speaks for itself.'
The letter, released publicly Friday, didn't give details about the meat of the conversation.
Schumer's office sang a similar tune.
'Unless ABC's source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday,' a spokesperson told DailyMail.com Wednesday evening.
Overall, 20 Democrats have urged Biden to quit the race.
On Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff - who's on track to win a California Senate seat -made his fears public.
'While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden's alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,' Schiff said in a statement. 'And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.'
The New York Times reported the day before that Schiff had told a group of Democratic donors at a fundraiser in the Hamptons on Saturday - before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump - that he didn't believe Biden could win.
Schiff warned that the president's unpopularity could kill Democrats' chances in the House and Senate too.
Publicly Biden has said only 'the Lord almighty' would pry him from the race, though added in an interview with BET on Wednesday that he'd leave 'if. I had some medical condition that emerged.'
On Wednesday the White House characterized Biden's COVID case as 'mild' with the White House physician saying the 81-year-old was experiencing 'general malaise.'
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