President Biden isolated with Covid at his beach house in Rehoboth, Del., on Thursday as the crisis engulfing his re-election campaign intensified.
He hunkered down after Democratic leaders in Congress told him privately they were deeply concerned about his chances in November, with polls showing him losing badly in all of the battleground states and big donors turning away.
Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker and one of the president’s biggest supporters, has told him that she is pessimistic about his chances, marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising to press her case.
In a recent call, when Mr. Biden insisted he had polls showing he could win, Ms. Pelosi said “put Donilon on the phone,” referring to Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime adviser.
While only 21 Democratic members of Congress — and no congressional leaders — have publicly called for Mr. Biden to drop out, many more have privately said he should.
And while those conversations, and the talks between congressional leaders and Mr. Biden, were initially kept under tight wraps, they are beginning to be discussed more openly, a sign that impatience is growing in the face of the president’s defiant refusals to step aside.
Democrats briefed on the conversations Mr. Biden has had in recent days said he has become more receptive to hearing arguments about why he should drop his re-election bid.
Mr. Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, the Democrats said, but has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data and has asked questions about how Vice President Kamala Harris could win.
Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in Congress, each told Mr. Biden privately over the past week that their members were deeply concerned about his chances in November and the fates of House and Senate candidates should he remain at the top of the ticket, according to two people briefed on the conversations.
