At a rally in Madison, Wisconsin last Friday, Joe Biden said: “Some folks … are trying to push me out of the race.”

To whom was the president referring?

Certainly not to Donald Trump or the Republicans, who have been uncharacteristically silent about the whole question of whether Biden should drop out. They couldn’t push him out of the Democratic race anyway.

Nor was he referring to Democrats in Congress. Almost all have been publicly supportive of Biden. Only six House Democrats out of 213 have called for him to drop out, and no Senate Democrat has gone that far (just one has hinted Biden should leave the race).

Was Biden referring to the leaders of the Democratic party? Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Senate majority leader and House Democratic leader, respectively, have been supportive of Biden, at least in public.

He couldn’t have been talking about the Democratic National Committee. Not a single DNC member has called for Biden to exit from the race.

Was Biden talking about the elite punditry on cable TV and on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post – almost all of who have called for Biden to drop out?

Doubtful. The chattering class has little or no influence on........

© The Guardian