Biden to make quit-or-stay call in 'couple of days'

US President Joe Biden could make a decision within days whether to remain a candidate for reelection, said Hawaii governor Josh Green who participated in a recent meeting with Biden and other Democratic governors and whose family has known the president for years.

And if Biden decides not to run, Green said he believes the president will designate Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him.

"We'll probably know in the next couple of days how the president feels about all this," he said.

Green was quick to point out that Republican nominee Donald Trump is only three years younger than Biden and both will have bad days. But he argued that temperament is more important than age.

"For God's sake, these two guys have to hold the nuclear codes," he said. "I don't want someone who tweets in the middle of the night and rages at other countries. That is not good. That's not the problem we have with President Biden."

Biden headed back out on the campaign trail yesterday, desperate to salvage his re-election bid as senior Democrats meet to discuss growing calls that he quit.

The 81-year-old kicks off a grueling week with two rallies in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, before hosting the NATO leaders' summit in Washington.

He will do so under an increasingly unforgiving spotlight, as pressure mounts for him to drop out after his disastrous debate against Trump last month ignited panic over his age and fitness to serve four more years.

A televised interview on Friday failed to quell concerns. His next major test in the public eye will be a press conference scheduled for Thursday, during the NATO summit.

Five Democratic lawmakers have called on him to drop out, with the drumbeat of dissent slowly rising.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries held a virtual meeting of senior party representatives yesterday to discuss the best way forward, and Democrat Senator Mark Warner was reportedly working to convene a similar forum in the upper chamber.

But after Sunday's rallies in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, the president will have to step away from the campaign for the NATO summit beginning Tuesday.

Here, too, he will find himself having to reassure allies at a time when many European countries fear a Trump victory in November.

The 78-year-old Republican has long criticized NATO as an unfair burden on the United States, voiced admiration for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, and insisted he could bring about a quick end to the fighting in Ukraine.

For now, Democrat heavyweights are largely keeping a lid on any simmering discontent with their leader - at least in public.

But with election day just four months away, any move to replace Biden as the nominee would need to be made sooner rather than later.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE