By Andrea Shalal

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – An embattled U.S. President Joe Biden faced escalating pressure from fellow Democrats worried about his candidacy on Sunday, concerns he worked to ease with campaign stops in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Biden, 81, faces growing calls to end his reelection bid after a halting performance in a June 27 debate with Republican Donald Trump, 78, raised questions about his ability to do the job for another four years. He has vowed to stay in the race, dismissing calls for him to drop out as “nonsense” in a fundraising email on Saturday.

On Sunday, the Democratic president received a warm welcome at a Black church in Philadelphia and later traveled to the Pennsylvania state capital, Harrisburg, for an event with union members. Black voters are a critical part of Biden’s base of support and recent public opinion polling has shown their support for him softening.

On a leadership call on Sunday called by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, some House Democrats said that Biden should step aside as presidential candidate, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Adam Smith, Mark Takano and Joe Morelle, senior House Democrats who sit on the Judiciary, Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and House Administration committees, were among those who called on Biden to step aside, according to media reports.

Democrats also suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris, seen as the likeliest candidate to replace Biden in the Nov. 5 election were he to bow out, could perform well.

The coming week is crucial, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He encouraged the president to hold a town hall or news conference to convince voters he is “the old Joe Biden.”

“The president needs to do more,” Murphy said. “I do think the clock is ticking.”

Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Biden needs to move swiftly to put concerns to rest.

He added that he believed Harris “could win overwhelmingly, but before we get into a decision about who else it should be, the president needs to make a decision about whether it’s him.”

Asked in Harrisburg whether the Democratic Party was behind him, Biden told reporters “yes.”

‘NEVER COUNT JOSEPH OUT’

In Philadelphia, churchgoers at the Mt Airy Church of God in Christ gave Biden a rousing welcome. Bishop Louis Felton praised him as “a man of vision and integrity.”

The bishop, referring to Biden’s Republican challenger without naming him, chided those who “make an issue of the president – that he is conditioned with stammering and not being able at certain times to bring forth words – while another person lies fluidly and you never challenge his lies.”

“Never count Joseph out,” Felton thundered. “Go, Joseph, you can make it.”

Biden addressed the congregation for a little more than six minutes, saying, “We must unite America again. That’s what I’m going to do.”

Carla Greene, a resident of Philadelphia, said she hoped Biden felt the support, adding, “we believe he is the man for the job.”

In a Friday interview with ABC News, Biden said only the “Lord Almighty” could persuade him to drop out, dismissing the prospect that Democratic leaders could join forces to try to talk him into standing down.

A Democratic National Committee member from Florida, Alan Clendenin, joined calls urging Biden to step aside on Sunday.

“Joe Biden will be remembered by historians as one of the finest presidents in American history, but this election is about the next four years, not the last three and a half,” Clendenin said.

The DNC has steadfastly supported Biden since his debate stumbles so any defections could suggest a deepening of the crisis. DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said on Sunday that Biden remains the party’s nominee. “The primary is over,” he said.

CRITICAL STATE

Biden stopped at a local campaign headquarters after church, telling supporters there, “Pennsylvania is a critically important state.”

Accompanying Biden, Democratic Senator John Fetterman bellowed, “There is only one person in the country that’s ever kicked Trump’s ass in an election and that is your president.”

Biden also met briefly with Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro.

Pennsylvania is one of the half dozen or so states alongside Wisconsin and Michigan that can swing Democratic or Republican and are expected to determine the outcome of what has been a tight race.

Sunday’s trip – Biden’s 10th to Pennsylvania during the 2024 election campaign – is part of a July voter outreach blitz by the Democratic Party that includes a $50 million media campaign aimed at events, such as the Olympics, and travel by the president, the first lady, Harris and her husband to multiple battleground states.

Pressure from Congress is expected to ramp up in the coming days as lawmakers return to Washington from a holiday recess and donors mull their willingness to keep funding Biden’s campaign.

Biden is also preparing to host dozens of world leaders at a NATO summit in Washington this week and hold a rare solo news conference.

Five U.S. lawmakers have publicly called for Biden to end his reelection bid, including Representative Angie Craig of Minnesota, the first Democratic member of the House of Representatives from a battleground district, with others said to be poised to join in.

Two letters are circulating among House Democrats calling for Biden to step aside, House Democratic sources have said.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia invited fellow senators to a meeting on Monday to discuss Biden’s campaign.

Senator Bernie Sanders, 82, who has run for the Democratic nomination for president in the past, stood firmly in Biden’s camp on Sunday, saying Democrats’ focus should be on policy.

“This is not a beauty contest,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

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France’s anti far-right alliance is on track to halt the rise of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, in a snap parliamentary election that leaves the Eurozone’s second-largest economy in limbo over its next government.

Provisional estimates from four pollsters suggest the RN, which was hoping to secure an outright majority in the National Assembly, may have been pushed into second or third place by a surge in support for the left.

The projections suggest the leftwing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) could become the largest parliamentary force with anywhere from 170 to 215 seats, according to Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay and Elabe.

But President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists were running close behind, with pollsters predicting ranges of 140 to 180 seats, a big drop from the roughly 250 they held in the outgoing National Assembly.

No single bloc has come close to securing an outright parliamentary majority, according to the estimates.

The projections come after the NFP was hastily formed between the far left La France Insoumise (LFI), the centrist Parti Socialiste (PS), the Communists and Greens a month ago, to help block the RN from power.

There were gasps of horror and tears at the RN electoral party as the first results estimates came in on Sunday.

A stunned silence replaced flag waving and chants that came after last week’s first round in the parliamentary election.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, chief of the hard left LFI, has called on Macron to offer the NFP the opportunity to form a government. “The will of the people must be strictly respected . . . The defeat of the president and his coalition is confirmed,” he said.

The polls were met with elation at the PS election event in Belleville, Paris, with chants of “front populaire” and a round of La Marseillaise.

“It’s brilliant, of course it’s brilliant,” Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the PS mayor of Rouen and a leading figure in the party, told the Financial Times.

The projected results suggest that the co-ordinated anti-RN strategy, under which the left and centre tactically withdrew their candidates from run-off ballots, had paid off.

After the first round, Le Pen was confidently predicting that a governing majority was within the RN’s reach.

If confirmed in final voting tallies, the projections suggest that none of the three main blocs will be able easily to command a governing majority, potentially leaving France in a period of political gridlock.

The uncertainty will have repercussions both for France and the EU, given Paris’ outsized role in influencing the bloc’s policy, together with Germany.

Financial markets had been jittery before the first round when the RN was polling strongly, but have since calmed as a hung parliament appeared more likely.

The NFP has proposed a heavy tax-and-spend economic programme, which would be a major break with Macron’s business friendly agenda and tax-cutting zeal.

In the French system, the president chooses the prime minister, who typically comes from the party with the biggest delegation in the National Assembly even if it does not have an outright majority. 

Macron could seek to cobble together a coalition of MPs from different parties on the left, centre and right, but excluding the RN and the far-left LFI.

Such an arrangement would amount to a “cohabitation”, and forging this kind of deal might prove difficult given the parties’ wide policy differences. 

A last resort would be naming a technocratic government to be led by an experienced but non-partisan figure, although this is not at all in the French political tradition. 

While the pollsters’ projections are far better than expected for Macron, his authority will still emerge weakened from the snap election.

Macron in June took a gamble in calling for the early vote after his centrist Ensemble alliance was trounced by Le Pen’s RN in European parliamentary elections.

The president defended the move, which stunned and angered many even in his own camp, as a necessary moment of “clarification”.

Bernard Sananes, head of Elabe, said: “It’s the victory of the Republican Front. Vote transfers have been excellent. Where the RN was in the second round, turnout increased.”

A measure that would ban cruise ships with 250 or more passengers from docking in Juneau on Saturdays qualified for the Oct. 1 municipal ballot, setting the stage for a debate about how much tourism is too much in a city that is experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change. The measure would also ban ships on July 4, a day when locals flock to a downtown parade.

The “ship-free Saturdays” initiative that qualified this week will go to voters unless the local Assembly enacts a similar measure by Aug. 15, which is seen as unlikely.

Juneau, accessible only by water or air, is home to the Mendenhall Glacier, a major draw for the cruise passengers who arrive on multi-story ships towering over parts of the modest downtown skyline. Many residents of this city of about 32,000 have concerns about increased traffic, congested trails and the frequent buzz of sight-seeing helicopters transporting visitors to the Mendenhall and other glaciers.

Deborah Craig, who has lived in Juneau for decades, supports ship-free Saturdays. Craig, who lives across the channel from where the ships dock, often hears their early-morning fog horns and broadcast announcements made to passengers that are audible across the water.

The current “overwhelming” number of visitors diminishes what residents love so much about Juneau, she said.

“It’s about preserving the lifestyle that keeps us in Juneau, which is about clean air, clean water, pristine environment and easy access to trails, easy access to water sports and nature,” she said of the initiative.

“There’s this perception that some people are not welcoming of tourists, and that’s not the case at all,” Craig said. “It’s about volume. It’s about too much — too many in a short period of time overwhelming a small community.”

The current cruise season runs from early April to late October.

Opponents of the initiative say limiting dockings will hurt local businesses that rely heavily on tourism and could invite lawsuits. A voter-approved limiton cruise passenger numbers in Bar Harbor, Maine, another community with a significant tourism economy, was challenged in federal court.

Laura McDonnell, a business leader who owns Caribou Crossings, a gift shop in Juneau’s downtown tourist core, said she makes 98% of her annual revenue during the summer season.

Tourism is about all the “local businesses that rely on cruise passengers and our place in the community,” said McDonnell, who is involved in Protect Juneau’s Future, which opposes the initiative.

Some schools recently closed due to factors including declining enrollment, while the regional economy faces challenges, she said.

“I think that as a community, we really need to look at what’s at stake for our economy,” she said. “We are not in a position to be shrinking our economy.”

The cruise industry accounted for $375 million in direct spending in Juneau in 2023, most of that attributable to spending by passengers, according to a report prepared for the city by McKinley Research Group LLC.

After a two-year pandemic lull, cruise passenger numbers rose sharply in Juneau, hitting a record of more than 1.6 million in 2023. Under this year’s schedule, Sept. 21 will be the first day since early May with no large ships in town.

The tourism debate is polarizing, and the city has been trying to find a middle ground, said Alexandra Pierce, Juneau’s visitor industry director. But she noted there also needs to be a regional solution.

If the Juneau initiative passes, it will impact other, smaller communities in southeast Alaska because the ships, generally on trips originating in Seattle or Vancouver, Canada, will have to go somewhere if they can’t dock in Juneau on Saturdays, she said.

Some residents in Sitka, south of Juneau, are in the early stages of trying to limit cruise visitation to that small, island community, which is near a volcano.

Juneau and major cruise lines, including Carnival Corp., Disney Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Group, agreed to a limit of five large ships a day, which took effect this year. They more recently signed a pact, set to take effect in 2026, seeking a daily limit of 16,000 cruise passengers Sundays through Fridays and 12,000 on Saturdays.

Pierce said the overall goal is to keep total cruise passenger visitation around 1.6 million, and to even out daily numbers of visitors that can spike to about 18,000 on the busiest days. Peak days in the past have felt “a bit suffocating,” she said. Juneau traditionally has been the most popular cruise port in the state.

A number of projects around Juneau are expected to help make existing cruise numbers feel less impactful. Those include plans for a gondola at the city-owned ski area and increased visitor capacity at the Mendenhall Glacier recreation area, she said.

Renée Limoge Reeve, vice president of government and community relations for the trade group Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said the agreements signed with the city were the first of their kind in Alaska.

The best strategy is “ongoing, direct dialogue with local communities” and working together in a way that also provides a predictable source of income for local businesses, she said.

Protect Juneau’s Future, led by local business leaders, said the success of the ballot measure would mean a loss of sales tax revenue and millions of dollars in direct spending by cruise passengers. The group was confident voters would reject the measure, its steering committee said in a statement.

Karla Hart, a sponsor of the initiative and frequent critic of the cruise industry, said the threat of litigation has kept communities from taking steps to limit cruise numbers in the past. She was heartened by legal wins this year in the ongoing fight over the measure passed in Bar Harbor, a popular destination near Maine’s Acadia National Park.

She believes the Juneau initiative will pass.

“Every single person who is going to vote has a lived experience and knowledge of how the cruise industry impacts their lives,” she said.