The pressure just keeps on mounting for Joe Biden. Yesterday, Wednesday, he was called, for the first time, by senator of his party to leave the presidential race against Donald Trump. Preceded by Hollywood star George Clooneya reflection of the erosion of support among even the most staunch Democrats.

The Vermont senator Peter Wells urged the US president to “withdraw from the race” for the White House “for the good of the country”, in an article published by the newspaper Washington Post.

He was the first member of this body of the US Congress to do so openly.

A day earlier his colleague, the Colorado senator Michael Bennettpredicted that Mr. Biden would be defeated in November and expressed concern that he would drag other Democratic candidates into the general elections held simultaneously in less than four months.

The American news website Axios reported yesterday that the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumersaid in private discussions with donors to his party that he is open to the possibility that President Biden will not be the head of the party’s ballot in the November presidential election, although he publicly assures that he is “with Joe”.

However, the person concerned was quick to emphasize, refuting the report, that “I support President Biden and remain committed to guaranteeing that Donald Trump will be defeated in November”, which “I have made clear repeatedly publicly and privately”.

Democratic senators plan to have breakfast today with close aides and advisers to the president.

At least nine members of the House of Representatives, the other house of Congress, have also publicly called for Mr. Biden to step down. Veteran Oregon congressman Earl Blumenauer was the latest to do so.

“I love Joe Biden. But we need another candidate,” the actor, director and producer Clooney, who declares himself a “lifelong” supporter of the Democrats, headlined on the side of his article published in the New York Times.

Mr. Clooney, who describes the president as a “friend,” organized a fund-raising event for him in mid-June. And “it’s shocking to say this, but the Joe Biden I met with three weeks ago is not (…) the Joe Biden of 2010. Not even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the man we saw at the debate” June 27 with Donald Trump, neither more nor less disastrous for the Democrat.

That night the president, 81, was confused and looked terribly tired.

Mr. Clooney spoke out after other figures in the film industry, which has so far offered considerable media and financial support to Mr. Biden.

The NBC television network, citing a source in Mr. Biden’s campaign, said the impact of the telefight on fundraising is already “devastating.”

On MSNBC, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who remains influential, also pressed the White House occupant.

“It’s up to the president to decide whether he’s going to run” in November against his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, Ms. Pelosi told the television network favored by many Democrats. But “time is pressing”, he added.

The American president, for his part, considers the issue already over.

He said on Monday, in a letter to parliamentarians from his faction, that he is “determined” to remain in the race.

Mr. Biden, who has been ramping up his activities in recent days in an effort to entertain concerns about his energy and stamina, spoke yesterday during an event by the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor confederation, then participated in NATO meeting in Washington.

On the sidelines of the session, Mr. Biden will give a long-awaited press conference today, in which attention will be focused mainly on his mental clarity.

The same goes for the interview he’s scheduled to give Monday on NBC.

Polls after the June debate show Donald Trump maintaining or widening his lead over his Democratic rival.

A Cook Political Report study based on 21 polls credits the 78-year-old Republican with 47% of voting intentions nationally, compared to 44% for Mr. Biden.

Kate Bedingfield, a CNN commentator who worked on Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, stressed yesterday via X that the president’s current team absolutely must present its “strategy” as the numbers are now ominous.