Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer reportedly told President Biden in a “blunt one-on-one conversation” Saturday it would be best if he “bowed out of the race,” according to an ABC report on X.
“Chuck Schumer had a blunt one-on-one conversation with Biden Saturday afternoon in Rehoboth. Schumer forcefully made the case that it would be best if Biden bowed out of the race,” ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl wrote. “Schumer’s office wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the conversation, telling me only, ‘Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus.’”
The Senate majority leader’s office issued a similar response obtained by Fox News Digital on Wednesday, but waved off ABC’s report.
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Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries both agreed to push for the DNC to delay its roll call. (Getty Images)
“Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation,” a spokesperson for Sen. Schumer said. “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”
The news comes as the New York Democrat pushed for the Democratic National Convention’s delay as questions persist about President Biden’s 2024 candidacy due to concerns over his mental acuity, according to multiple sources.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital in a statement after publication that Biden “told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”
Schumer spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and both men agreed to urge the DNC to delay a virtual roll call planned for this month to officially nominate Biden, three sources told Fox News Digital.
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U.S. President Joe Biden pictured in front of the Capitol. (Getty Images)
It was revealed Wednesday that the DNC was delaying its nomination plans to August after significant pushback from party members toward an initial plan to nominate Biden later this month.
“We have confirmed with the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic National Convention that no virtual voting will begin before August 1,” wrote DNC Rules Committee co-chairs Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and veteran Democratic Party official Leah Daughtry in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., became the 20th congressional Democrat to call on Biden to step aside on Wednesday. “I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, left, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, right. (Getty Images)
His call came one day after a report claimed he told donors “I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose.”
President Biden has become more receptive to leaving the race, moving from arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris can’t win to asking advisers if the vice president can win, according to a report from CNN.
Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Wednesday evening that Biden had contracted COVID-19. The COVID diagnosis follows remarks from a day earlier in which Biden said a medical condition could lead to him dropping out of the race.
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“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, the doctors came and said you’ve got this problem, that problem,” Biden told BET’s Ed Gordon . “But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate and, look, when I originally ran, you might remember it, I said I was gonna be a transitional candidate. I thought that I would be able to move from this, to pass it on to somebody else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser, Adam Shaw and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.