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- Barack Obama has doubts that Joe Biden can win the election, sources told The Washington Post.
- Obama is said to have told allies he worries about both donors' and voters' waning support.
- Biden has insisted he's not ducking out of the race, despite growing pressure from Democrats.
President Joe Biden may have lost the support of the man he once served as vice president: Barack Obama.
Obama — a heavyweight in the Democratic Party — has been telling his close allies in the past few days that he believes Biden's chance of defeating Donald Trump this November is increasingly slim and that Biden should seriously reconsider the future of his campaign, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the conversations.
Reports last week suggested Biden feared that Obama was quietly supporting — or at least not objecting to — a Democratic push to oust him, but things appear to have escalated in recent days.
In some private conversations with his allies, Obama has expressed concern that donors are deserting the president and that recent polls have indicated he's losing favor among voters, the Post's report said.
Obama has also privately said, the Post reported, that while he believes Biden has done a great job as president, his accomplishments may be washed away if he fails to win the White House and if Democrats fail to secure a majority in Congress this election.
And just like Nancy Pelosi, another majorly influential party leader, Obama has been meeting with Democrats behind the scenes to discuss doubts about Biden's ability to win the election and serve out another four years, the Post reported, citing people with knowledge of the calls.
Obama and Pelosi are even said to have spoken with each other about their worries that Biden's campaign may be a lost cause.
But despite growing anxiety about Biden's reelection chances, Biden has remained fervently committed to continuing his campaign.
When reached for comment, a representative for Biden's campaign directed Business Insider toward a statement from his principal deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks.
"Look, I talk to the president every day like I said," Fulks said at a press conference in Milwaukee on Thursday morning. "He is not wavering on anything. The president has made his decision. I don't want to be rude, but I don't know how many more times we can answer that. Joe Biden has said he is running for president of the United States.
"There are no plans being made to replace President Biden on the ballot, and President Biden is cognizant this is a margin-of-error race," Fulks continued. "Folks are acting like before the debate we somehow said this was going to be a landslide victory for Democrats. We have always said this race was going to be close."
Biden has long been expected to win his party's formal nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August. A plan to have Biden nominated sooner was shelved after Democratic lawmakers publicly trashed the idea.