Exclusive-Biden is working towards what's best for US - Sen. Hickenlooper

By Jeff Mason

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is working towards a decision on whether to stay in the presidential race that is good for the country, Senator John Hickenlooper told Reuters, noting sadness among Democrats about the president while stopping short of saying he should step aside.

Hickenlooper, who ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination that Biden won, declined to add his voice to the growing number of lawmakers explicitly calling on Biden to leave the race. But he said there was mounting evidence it would be good for the country if that were the decision Biden made.

"Joe Biden has always put the country first. He's done what's best for America...I think he'll keep doing so," Hickenlooper said in a telephone interview late Wednesday. "He's working towards that."

Asked about Biden potentially stepping aside, Hickenlooper said: "That's his decision to make, but certainly there's more and more indications that that would be in the best interests of the country, I think."

Biden, 81, is facing calls from influential members of his party to leave the Democratic ticket after his shaky debate performance against former President Donald Trump, now the Republican nominee, raised concerns about his age and ability to prevail in the November election.

Hickenlooper said there is a sense of anguish among Democrats who hold Biden, who served in the Senate for 36 years, in high esteem, even if they believe he should not be running for re-election.

"I don't think a lot of people realize how beloved Joe Biden is and what sorrow and anguish people feel that he might not be the candidate. Even people who feel that he should not be the candidate feel a great sense of loss," Hickenlooper said.

"He's been one of the greatest presidents, perhaps the greatest president of my lifetime."

But Hickenlooper said feedback from his constituents in Colorado - not donors, he said, and not insiders - showed overwhelmingly that average Democratic voters wanted Biden to step aside.

"When there's that much unease and that much dissatisfaction, it is hard for anybody to be able to unite the party," he said. "He is still beloved... It's just not the same landscape that it was four years ago."

Biden is convalescing from COVID-19 at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. On Saturday he met one-one-one with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who reportedly urged him to exit the race.

Biden has been largely defiant in the face of such calls. The White House said late Wednesday the president told Schumer he was the party's nominee and he planned to win the election.

Hickenlooper said if Biden had wavered in his determination to stay in the race, that would have opened the floodgates for more calls to step aside.

"That doesn't mean he couldn't still in the end decide to stay in," said Hickenlooper, who was a brewpub owner in Denver before launching a career in politics, adding Biden would not waste time in making his decision.

"Everyone's got their own rate of fermentation."

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Angus MacSwan)