(NewsNation) — Bill O’Reilly says former President Barack Obama and Ron Klain, President Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, have decided Biden “has to go.”
During a heated conversation with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo, O’Reilly insisted to Cuomo that Obama and Klain are the “most powerful” voices in the Democratic Party.
“It doesn’t matter what the Congress people say,” O’Reilly said. Obama and Klein “made the decision that Biden cannot beat Trump in Biden’s state, primarily because they believe there will be a number of other incidents before the vote.”
Biden will hold a news conference Thursday, the key event in a monumental week during which the Democratic incumbent is fending off calls for him to step aside as the party’s presumptive nominee following a shaky debate performance.
O’Reilly said that if Biden “falters” in the news conference, “he’ll have to resign.”
“Donald Trump wants to run against Joe Biden,” O’Reilly added. “He believes that Biden is the easiest target for him, I believe. And he believes it for the same reason that Obama wants Biden out. The reasons are the same.”
Biden’s letter to lawmakers
On Monday, Biden said in a letter sent to Democratic lawmakers that he’s “firmly committed” to running in the 2024 election.
Writing in the letter that he’s had “extensive conversations” with party leadership, elected officials and voters over the past 10 days, Biden added they have “good faith fears and worries” about what is at stake in this election.
“Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries,” Biden wrote.
However, “the question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now,” Biden wrote. “And it’s time for it to end.”
Biden has fielded questions over whether he should be the Democratic nominee for president following his highly criticized performance at the first presidential debate two weeks ago. As he debated presumptive Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump, Biden stumbled through his words and appeared at times to be confused. Although Trump made multiple false statements during the debate, concerns over Biden’s age and mental fitness took center stage.
To Democrats in Congress, Biden wrote, “I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.
“We have a historic record of success to run on.”
What the polls are saying
The Cook Political Report is now predicting Trump will win a trio of critical swing states: Nevada, Georgia and Arizona. Biden won all three of those states in 2020.
A New York Times analysis of recent polling also showed that if the election were held today, Trump would win with 312 Electoral College votes, taking nearly every swing state.
While the Cook Political Report still lists Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as toss-ups, Trump currently leads in the most recent polls in all three states. Biden won all three in 2020, and those states could prove critical in determining a winner this November, too.
NewsNation’s Tom Dempsey and Kellie Meyer contributed to this report.