Californian representative Adam Schiff has been the latest Democrat to speak out against Joe Biden, calling on the US leader to drop out of the presidential race.
Mr Biden tested positive for Covid-19 while travelling on Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.
Mr Schiff said in a statement: “While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch.
“And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”
Mr Schiff is also a prominent Democrat, and his statement is likely to be closely monitored due to his proximity to speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi.
It was Ms Pelosi who revived questions about Mr Biden post-debate when she said recently that “it’s up to the president” to decide what to do — even though Mr Biden had fully stated he had no intention of stepping aside.
The former House speaker publicly supports the President but has fielded calls from Democrats since debate night questioning what’s next.
In response to Mr Schiff’s comments, the Biden campaign pointed to what it called “extensive support” for him and his re-election bid from members of Congress in key swing states, as well as from the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses.
Mr Biden is travelling in Nevada this week, and the campaign noted that he has been joined on the trip by “nearly a dozen” Congressional Black Caucus members.
Still, Mr Schiff’s announcement came after Mr Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries encouraged the party to delay for a week plans to hold the virtual vote to renominate Mr Biden, two insider sources told the Associated Press.
The Democratic National Committee’s rulemaking arm is set to meet on Friday to discuss how the virtual vote plans will work and to finalise them next week.
“We will not be implementing a rushed virtual voting process, though we will begin our important consideration of how a virtual voting process would work,” Democratic National Convention rules committee co-chairs Leah D Daughtry and Tim Walz wrote on Wednesday.
The letter also said that the virtual roll call vote will not take place before August 1, but that the party is still committed to holding a vote before August 7, which had been the filing deadline to get on Ohio’s presidential ballot.
The Democratic convention runs in person from August 19-22, but the party announced in May that it would hold an early roll call to ensure Mr Biden would qualify for the ballot in Ohio. That state originally had an August 7 deadline but has since changed its rules.
The Biden campaign insists that the party must operate under Ohio’s initial rules to ensure Republican lawmakers cannot mount legal challenges to keep the President off the ballot.
