Many senior Biden officials believe he must drop out as he becomes increasingly isolated

Washington CNN —

President Joe Biden is more isolated than he has ever been, with many senior-ranking White House and campaign officials now privately believing that he must abandon his campaign for a second term – and soon.

“The next 72 hours are big,” one Democratic governor in close touch with party officials relayed to aides on Thursday. “This can’t go on much longer.”

In interviews with CNN, more than two dozen sources familiar with the dynamics inside the West Wing and campaign said there is now widespread acceptance that Biden remaining in the 2024 race is wholly untenable.

“Everyone is saying it privately,” one senior Democrat said. “People see and feel the walls closing in.”

Another top Democrat close to the White House described Biden as having become “exceptionally insulated and isolated” since the CNN presidential debate on June 27. Multiple sources said some of the most senior advisers to Biden – including adviser Anita Dunn, attorney Bob Bauer and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon – faced the ire of the president’s family in the aftermath of the debate.

That has only had the effect of making Biden’s inner circle of advisers with free access to the president – which had already been famously small and impenetrable – even tighter.

Three weeks after his disastrous debate performance that shocked even his closest aides, friends and Democrats across the party, a stunningly small number of his most loyal aides – chief among them, his decadeslong advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti – and members of the Biden family appear dug in along with the president. That tight circle has alarmed many Democrats who are questioning whether Biden is receiving realistic data about the plight of his candidacy.