Senator Joe Manchin urges Biden to step aside as Trump rises in polls

Washington DC - Another senator on Sunday joined calls for President Joe Biden to end his candidacy in favor of a younger Democrat, while a shock poll from the swing state of Michigan illustrated the growing sense that he will lose to Donald Trump if he stays in the race.

Senator Joe Manchin (pictured) on Sunday joined calls for President Joe Biden to end his candidacy in favor of a younger Democrat.
Senator Joe Manchin (pictured) on Sunday joined calls for President Joe Biden to end his candidacy in favor of a younger Democrat.  © JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP

"I come [to this decision] with a heavy heart, but I think it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation," Senator Joe Manchin, a former conservative Democrat turned independent from West Virginia, said on ABC's This Week.

The call from a longtime friend of the president reinforced a swell of increasingly urgent pleas from top party officials for the 81-year-old Biden to step aside as signs mount of his eroding support.

Biden's ability to fight back has been limited; he has been isolating himself with Covid at his Delaware home since Wednesday, his health is said to be improving but his public face is limited to a series of attacks on Trump on social media.

Trump claims Palestinians "never took advantage" of Gaza's "beautiful" views
Donald Trump Trump claims Palestinians "never took advantage" of Gaza's "beautiful" views

Meantime, a new poll from the battleground state of Michigan – where Trump, his right ear bandaged from the recent attempt on his life, held a raucous rally Saturday – carried grim news for the president.

Big shift in battleground Michigan is poor omen for Biden

The poll, which began the day Trump was wounded at a Pennsylvania rally and ended as he was accepting his party's nomination in Milwaukee, found Trump leading Biden 49% to 42% in a state the Democrat carried four years ago by three percentage points.

The Epic-MRA poll showed Trump doubling his lead since the last poll on June 27, just before the presidential debate that proved disastrous for the president. The survey even gave Trump a narrow lead in metropolitan Detroit, which is normally safe Democratic territory.

Yet another poll, by ABC News and Ipsos, showed Trump enjoying his highest national favorability ratings in years – at 40%, up from the mid-30s – propelled no doubt by the successful Republican convention and a surge of sympathy following the attempt on his life.

Cover photo: JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP

More on Joe Biden: