Biden’s health and age under even further scrutiny amid questions over his political future

Washington CNN —

As President Joe Biden isolates at his Delaware beach home after testing positive for Covid-19, he is growing increasingly isolated from many corners of his Democratic Party as he faces deepening questions about whether he should continue his reelection campaign.

The announcement of Biden’s positive test on Wednesday came as calls from his party for him to step aside in the 2024 race are growing louder. CNN reported that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told the president that polling shows Biden cannot defeat former President Donald Trump in November and that continuing his run for the presidency could destroy Democrats’ chance to take back the House.

Following Biden’s campaign-changing performance in last month’s presidential debate, his age and health — which have long been his biggest political weakness, dating back to his third run for the presidency starting in 2019 — have been under the microscope. In the last week, multiple incidents have been held up as signs that Biden is not sharp enough to convince voters that he could defeat Trump, let alone serve another four years as commander-in-chief.

. This comes as a new video emerges about Biden struggling to remember the name of his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during an interview with BET." data-duration="01:53" data-source-html=" - Source: CNN " data-fave-thumbnails="{"big": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/biden-1-20240718185044387.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" }, "small": { "uri": "https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/biden-1-20240718185044387.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_540,w_960,c_fill" } }" data-vr-video="false" data-show-html="" data-byline-html=" By MJ Lee, CNN "