Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party commission seem prepared to make Joe Biden an offer he can’t refuse: One way or another, he’s dropping out of this race, they say, either with his consent or with his legacy destroyed.

Just when Biden thought his candidacy was safe, after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump quieted talk of a swap at the top of the ticket, they pulled him back in, and now the pundits tell us that his campaign won’t survive the weekend. We’ll see.

For the bosses of the Democrat family, ending Biden’s political career is a three-step process. First they ask him to leave, then they tell him to leave, and finally they threaten to destroy him if he won’t wise up. We are almost at step three.

The advantages of step one are very clear. Had Biden selflessly and magnanimously put his own interests aside for the betterment of the party, if not the country, by dropping out, he might have seen the kind of double-digit approval bounce Lyndon Baines Johnson got in 1968. That boost would accrue to the benefit of the new candidate, likely Kamala Harris.

Likewise, he would secure his legacy as the caretaker president who saved the nation from the evils of the Trump Family and bestowed power upon the new, young generation. 

That ship has sailed now, and we are squarely on step two. But Biden has already rejected team Obama when they told him, ‘that’s a nice legacy you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.’

The threats from the editorial boards of The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, the consiglieres of the Democratic Party, have been ignored by an obstinate sitting president who for some reason, thinks he’s in charge.

Now Biden seems poised to wake up with a bloody equine head in his bed, and the Democrats have no shortage of horses to choose from. 

Perhaps the tape of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur will be released. If the audio wasn’t humiliating to Biden, we would have it already, so not for nothing, it can’t be good. Attorney General Merrick Garland could have a sudden change of heart. These things happen.

Then there is his prodigal son, Hunter, who hopes to beat the rap and go legit with his art career. If Joe declines to run, there is no reason he can’t pardon the family Fredo, especially after the election, win or lose.

Finally, there is the 25th amendment, the ultimate play, in which Democrats would remove Biden from office, his legacy in tatters. He would be the only president ever kicked out of office for losing his marbles.

Basically, the Democrats have politely asked Joe, Jill and Hunter to leave the establishment. Soon the door will lock, and they will hear the words, ‘now youse can’t leave,’ before the punches start flying.

So the Democrats don’t lack the cards to get Joe off the ticket, but at the same time, the big guy is not without his own moves. If he chooses not to go gently into the night, if he refuses to endorse Kamala Harris, then the Dems have a whole new contested convention headache.

Biden could also flip and turn state’s evidence, spilling tea on the Democrat’s family secrets, essentially burning down the party trying to throw him under the bus.

No, this is still up to Joe, even if he is mumbling and drooling as he stumbles around in his bathrobe. He is still the boss for now, and if an attempt to topple him fails, the Bidens will be taking care of all the family business.

And if you think that isn’t possible, I’d ask you, now who’s being naive?

The next few days will prove decisive, as Biden’s enemies reveal themselves. Can Joe Biden still hang on? Even win? Yeah, he can, and hell hath no fury like a boss betrayed.

Will Joe leave the presidency and take the cannolis? We will know soon, and either way, it could change everything in the race just three months from the finish line.

Five more House Democrats on Friday joined the growing number of congressional lawmakers who have called on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 election. 

In a joint statement, Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Marc Veasey, D-Texas, Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois and Marc Pocan, D-Wisc., urged Biden to ‘pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders.’ 

‘Mr. President, with great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders,’ the lawmakers wrote. 

‘We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rules-based international order, and continue building on the strong foundation you have established over the past four years,’ they said.

‘At this point, however, we must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign. These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change. We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House.’

Veasey is the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a group that has strongly backed Biden, to call for the president to step aside. 

A fifth House Democrat, Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, separately urged Biden to drop out in an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune. 

‘It’s time for Joe Biden to pass the torch,’ Casten wrote.

‘[P]olitics, like life, isn’t fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation.’

Additionally, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., on Friday called on Biden to suspend his presidential campaign. He is now the third Democratic senator to do so. 

‘While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside,’ Heinrich said in a statement. 

There are now 28 Congressional Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside. That number represents more than 10% of elected Democrats in Congress. 

Behind the scenes, more and more Democratic party officials, top donors and key Biden allies are reportedly urging the president to reconsider his decision to stay in the race. Should Biden drop out ahead of the Democratic National Committee convention in August, Vice President Kamala Harris is acknowledged to be in the best position to receive the party’s nomination — although some Democrats fear she would also lose to Trump and prefer that a candidate unaffiliated with the current administration be nominated in an open convention.

Biden has made no public indication that he intends to step aside, and his campaign has forcefully denied all suggestions to the contrary. 

‘Absolutely the president is in this race, you’ve heard him say that time and again,’ Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Friday on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’ 

‘I’m not here to say this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign, there’s no doubt that it has been, and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support. But it has been a small movement.’

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

With President Biden’s future uncertain, a majority of Democrats say the country would be in good hands if his vice president were to take over the White House. 

A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about six in 10 Democrats believe that Vice President Kamala Harris would do a good job as president herself. About two in 10 Democrats don’t believe she would, and another two in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.

The survey comes as an increasing number of Democratic officials are publicly urging Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election after his disastrous debate performance on June 27. Democratic officials are worried that voters don’t believe that the 81-year-old president is capable of performing his duties, and many have suggested that Harris or another candidate would fare better against the Republican nominee, former President Trump. 

Recent polls show Democratic voters have soured on Biden as well. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll of Massachusetts residents found that 64% of likely Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters want someone other than Biden to face off against Trump. The AP-NORC national survey likewise found that 65% of Democrats say Biden should drop out of the race. 

While Harris is the focus of several insider discussions for a plan B ticket, the vice president has maintained strong public support for Biden and defended him from slings and arrows thrown by panicked party officials speaking anonymously to the press.

But if Harris, 59, were to replace Biden atop the ticket, Democratic voters would mostly be happy with the younger candidate — a woman of color who could champion the party’s message on abortion rights, and a former state attorney general who could prosecute the Democratic Party’s case against voting for Trump.

Harris could also motivate key Democratic constituencies to show up on Election Day, including women and Black adults, who were more likely than Americans overall to say Harris would do well as president. 

Americans outside the Democratic Party were more skeptical of how Harris would perform in the Oval Office. Only about three in 10 Americans say Harris would be a good president. Nearly half said Harris would not do a good job, and two in 10 say they don’t know enough to have an opinion. 

Harris’ favorability rating is similar to Biden’s, but the share of Americans who have an unfavorable opinion of her is somewhat lower. The poll showed that about four in 10 U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Harris, while about half have an unfavorable opinion. There are more Americans with a negative view of Biden: approximately six in 10. About one in 10 Americans say they don’t know enough to have an opinion of Harris, whereas nearly everyone has an opinion on Biden.

About three-quarters of Democrats have a positive view of Harris, which is in line with how Democrats view Biden. Seven in 10 have a favorable view of him.

Harris is also better-known among Democrats than other potential candidates, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. About one-third of Democrats say Newsom would make a good president, and half don’t know enough to say. About one-quarter of Democrats say Whitmer would do well, and about two-thirds don’t know enough to say.

The AP poll of 1,253 adults was conducted July 11-15, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An explosion that rocked Tel Aviv overnight Thursday has left one person dead and several others wounded.

Military officials say they believe the source of the explosion was a deadly drone attack, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels have already claimed responsibility for a drone strike in the area near the U.S. embassy, the Associated Press reported.

The drone was not intercepted despite it being identified prior to the explosion due to human error. Officials say the systems weren’t active at the time of the attack, causing neither the sirens nor the interception to activate.

The drone impacted an apartment in Tel Aviv at approximately 3:12 a.m. after entering the city from the direction of the sea. Officials are unsure if the drone hit the building or exploded mid-air and are still probing the origin of the drone.

A witness to the attack said it sounded much bigger than a rocket attack, and it was very scary.

‘It sounds like a rocket, like rocket but much stronger than rocket,’ said Ortal Piron. ‘So I actually experienced a lot of war in my life, a lot of rocket, but it sounds absolutely different. More bigger and my bed shake, also building actually shake. It was really scary.’

The IAF says the deadly incident ‘shouldn’t have happened,’ and it takes full responsibility for the failure that led to the fatal attack. They are also looking into the type of UAV and the explosives it had on it. 

Former President Trump addressed the Republican National Convention on Thursday in Milwaukee, his first speech since the assassination attempt last week – and it had a number of major moments.

Trump pays tribute to fallen firefighter.

Trump paid tribute to firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed in last week’s assassination attempt on Trump, calling the Pennsylvania father a ‘fine man.’

‘Tragically, the shooter claimed the life of one of our fellow Americans, Corey Comperatore, and seriously wounded two other great warriors.. David Dutch and James Copenhaver. I spoke to all three families of these tremendous people – our love and prayers are with them, and always will be,’ Trump said. ‘ Corey, a highly respected former fire chief… was accompanied by his wife Helen… and two precious daughters. He lost his life selflessly acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets… what a fine man he was.’

Trump then walked over and kissed Comperatore’s firefighting helmet which was placed with his turnout coat on the stage next to the former president as a tribute before asking for a moment of silence.

‘There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others,’ Trump said. ‘This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness.’

Trump retells assassination attempt

At the beginning of the speech, Trump retold in great detail the assassination attempt against him. A somber Trump told the crowd his version of events.

‘In order to see the chart, I started to turn to my right, and was ready to begin a further turn, which I’m lucky I didn’t, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really hard, on my right ear,’ Trump recalled. ‘I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that – it can only be a bullet,’ – and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down, and my hand was covered with blood, just blood all over the place. I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack, and in one movement, proceeded to drop to the ground.’

‘There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way I felt very safe, because I had God on my side,’ Trump continued. ‘The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at the very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be with you tonight.’

Despite shots ringing out at the crowded rally, attendees did not ‘run for the exits or stampede,’ Trump noted, but instead ‘tens of thousands of people stood by and didn’t move an inch. In fact, many of them bravely, but automatically, stood up looking for where the sniper would be, and then began pointing at him.’

Because of this, Trump said, ‘many lives were saved.’

‘But that isn’t the reason they didn’t move – the reason is that they knew I was in serious trouble, they saw all of the blood, and thought I was dead, and they just didn’t want to leave me, and you can see that love written all over their faces,’ he said.

‘I am not supposed to be here tonight,’ Trump said, as the crowd shouted back, ‘Yes you are.’

Trump pays tribute to Melania

Trump took a moment out of his speech to pay tribute to his wife Melania, saying he was ‘deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife.’

He then referred to her letter to America, in which she called for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt against her husband.

‘I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans,’ she wrote. ‘Dawn is here again. Let us reunite. Now.’

The former president praised the letter.

‘And Melania, thank you very much. You also did something really beautiful. A letter to America calling for national unity. And it really took the Republican Party by surprise. I will tell you, it was beautiful,’ he said.

‘Some very serious people said that we should take that letter and put it as part of the Republican platform. That would be an honor, wouldn’t it?’

Trump shows illegal immigration chart that he believes saved his life

Trump displayed a chart showing the number of illegal immigrant crossings into the U.S. that had been on display during his speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, and that crucially he turned his head to look at as a gunman opened fire.

‘ Last time I put up that chart, I never really got to look at it,’ he said to laughs from the crowd. ‘But without that chart, I would not be here today.’

‘I said ‘you got to see this chart’. I was so proud of it. And by the time I got to there, I never got to see it that day. But I’m seeing it now, and I was very proud.’

Trump uses Biden’s name

Trump went off script and used President Biden’s name once, and quickly said he wouldn’t do it again.

‘If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst and added them all up… they will not have done the damage that Biden has done.’

‘I’m only going to use the term once. Biden. I’m not going to use the name anymore. Just one time.’

Delegates and guests attending the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin are making predictions about President Biden’s political future amid reports he is closer to exiting the 2024 presidential race.

Fox News Digital spoke with multiple RNC attendees outside Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, the site of the convention, and most felt Biden would ultimately drop his re-election bid but that it would matter little when the votes are finally counted.

‘I think [former President] Trump’s going to mop the floor with anybody they put up,’ one attendee said, adding that it seemed Biden was ‘on the way out the door.’

‘I don’t think it really matters. I think whoever they have, their bench is kind of shallow and weak right now.’

Another attendee told Fox he felt vindicated after predicting months earlier Biden wasn’t going to end up being the Democrat presidential nominee.

‘I think Saturday may have changed things slightly, but I doubt it,’ he said, referencing the failed assassination attempt against Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. ‘The globalists have a mission. They don’t care anymore about Joe Biden. … I don’t think it matters who they run. I don’t think they have a shot to win a legitimate election at this point.’ 

Others also predicted Biden would drop out, but some expressed hope he would stay in the race or thought that Democrats couldn’t afford to dump him from the ticket so close to the election.

‘They bet with him, and they keep telling us how far ahead in the polls he is, so they need to keep backing him all the way. I think it’d be disastrous if they change right now,’ she said.

‘I think he understands, and his compatriots understand, he needs to drop out. So, I think he will. I have no idea who they’re going to put up, you know, to replace him. I would hope it wouldn’t be Kamala, but I have no idea,’ another said.

One attendee said it would be ‘totally fine’ if Vice President Harris became the nominee or even California Gov. Gavin Newsom or former first lady Michelle Obama. ‘The people, I think, are waking up to know that that’s just not the party of the people anymore. So, it doesn’t matter.’

The attendees also unanimously praised Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, after his Wednesday convention speech, calling him ’empathetic,’ ‘high energy’ and ‘relatable.’

Reuters reported Thursday that Biden is now ‘soul-searching’ about the future of his candidacy, citing sources familiar with the matter, while NBC News reported a source close to the president as saying, ‘We’re close to the end.’

The reports come after previous reporting from the Washington Post that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden he would lose and push the House of Representatives further under Republican control. The Post also reported that former President Obama told his allies that Biden needed to reconsider his candidacy.

Florida Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told Fox News Digital that if President Biden bows out of the presidential race and is replaced ahead of the Democratic National Convention, the new candidate would likely have little impact on former President Donald Trump’s shot at winning back the White House this November.

‘I definitely think we’re going to see [Democrats] try to push him out, and we’ll see who they replace them with. I think that’s important for Republicans to understand the moment that this is happening. We have the momentum right now this week at our convention, but this race isn’t over [until] November,’ Greene said from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 

‘There could be a total change if they replace Joe Biden with a new candidate. But we have the right policies. We have the right plans in place for Republicans [to] win,’ she added. 

During the RNC this week, Democrats have increasingly called on Biden to drop out of the race, with California Rep. Adam Schiff joining the chorus of traditional allies calling on the president to pass the mantle ahead of the race against former President Trump. 

‘While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,’ said Schiff. 

Greene continued in her comment to Fox Digital that if Biden bows out and is replaced with another Democrat, it would likely not affect Trump’s run, arguing the Biden administration’s record puts a stain on whoever would join the race. 

‘No matter who they put at the top of the ticket, that candidate has to run with the job record that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have brought the several past years because Democrats are fully aligned behind those policies,’ Greene said.

‘I think America really came to one mindset and got resolved behind President Trump and behind the Republican Party after seeing him almost assassinated on Saturday. It’s a moment that everyone will always remember where they were when that happened, similar to 9/11. Everyone remembers where they were when that happened. I also think people are just really fed up with the border invasion that’s happening every day. The fact that people can’t afford food, can’t afford rent and inflation is really crippling a lot of people,’ she said. 

Biden has so far brushed off the calls for him to bow out, but reports are circulating that he’s increasingly considering calling it quits with the 2024 campaign. 

‘Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,’ Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning near the site of the Republican National Convention.

The president said in a recent interview with BET that he would drop out if a doctor told him he had a medical condition. 

‘If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,’ Biden said in an excerpt of the interview that was released Wednesday. 

Biden is currently quarantined in his home in Delaware after being diagnosed with COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon.

Hunter Biden has asked for criminal cases against him in Delaware and California to be thrown out of court, citing the dismissal of a case involving former President Trump and arguing that Special Counsel David Weiss was illegally appointed.

Biden’s lawyers are requesting that both federal cases be thrown out. He was convicted last month on three felony charges related to a handgun purchase in 2018, and a case in California about alleged federal tax crimes is ongoing. 

Biden’s attorneys are arguing that Special Counsel David Weiss was illegally appointed because he was not Senate-confirmed as special counsel. This is the same issue that resulted in the case against Trump over the handling of classified documents thrown out. Both men were prosecuted by special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In the Trump case, Judge Aileen Cannon found that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutional because he was appointed by Garland and not confirmed by the Senate, violating the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The Department of Justice said this week it is appealing that ruling. A spokesperson for Smith had previously said that ‘the dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel,’ and that the Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order.

In the Hunter Biden case, circumstances are different because Weiss was Senate confirmed as U.S. attorney in Delaware, but Biden’s attorneys are arguing that since Trump’s case was dismissed, so should theirs.

‘Based on these new legal developments, Mr. Biden moves to dismiss the indictment because the Special Counsel who initiated this prosecution was appointed in violation of the Appointments Clause as well,’ the request says.

‘The Attorney General relied upon the exact same authority to appoint the Special Counsel in both the Trump and Biden matters, and both appointments are invalid for the same reason,’ the lawyers said.

It means that President Biden’s son is trying to get cases thrown out using a ruling that helped Biden’s presidential rival, and a ruling that is currently being challenged by the Department of Justice.

While the recent decision from Cannon in the Trump case may be persuasive, it is also not binding because it took place in a different federal jurisdiction. But if the motion to dismiss is decided in Biden’s favor, it also benefits Trump, as his team will have another argument to make as they make the case that the Smith appointment was unlawful.

Biden’s team has requested an Aug. 5 hearing for the motion.

Fox News’ Bill Mears, Lee Ross, David Spunt, Jake Gibson, Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.