Washington.- Sick with Covid and abandoned by his allies, President Biden has been sulking at his Delaware beach house, increasingly resentful about what he sees as an orchestrated campaign to push him out of the race and against some of those he considered close, including his running mate Barack Obama.
Biden has been in politics long enough to assume that the leaks that have appeared in the media in recent days are being coordinated to generate pressure for him to drop out of the race, according to people close to him.
He sees former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the main instigator, though he is also angry with Obama, who he believes is the one directing everything behind the scenes.
The friction between the sitting president and his party’s leaders so close to an election is unlike anything Washington has seen in generations — especially since the Democrats trying to replace him were some of the most crucial allies to his success over the past dozen years.
It was Obama who elevated Biden to the vice presidency, helping him win the White House in 2020, and it was Ms. Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, who helped him achieve his legislative achievements.
The president has been seen to be increasingly exasperated with the succession of news stories that have emerged, one after another, reporting that Schumer, Pelosi, Obama and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the leader of the Democrats in the House, have all warned of a devastating defeat for the party in November.
And he certainly noted that Obama has done nothing to help him in recent days and even his former advisers have called on Biden to step down, in what was rightly or wrongly interpreted as a message from the former president.
The unseen but felt presence of Obama in particular has lent itself to a Shakespearian-style drama, given their eight-year cohabitation.
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