BUCKHEAD, Ga. — Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler said it's up to President Biden to decide whether to stay in the race for the White House but said his administration is "unraveling" in the wake of last week's Atlanta debate.
The Georgia Republican said there's "obviously a growing and vigorous conversation going on about whether Biden will remain the Democratic presidential candidate."
Loeffler made the comments Wednesday during the taping of a broader interview for 11Alive's Sunday politics show, The Georgia Vote. The extended interview will air Sunday at 11 a.m.
Following a shaky debate performance where President Biden seemed to struggle at times to follow his own train of thought, some have called on him to drop out of the race for the White House to clear the ticket for an alternative Democratic nominee.
The Biden administration has repeatedly pushed back against those claims. When asked at a briefing this week if the president planned to step down, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "absolutely not."
Loeffler, a major Republican donor, described the situation as a crisis for the Biden re-election campaign.
"It appears that we are seeing the unraveling of the Biden-Harris administration," she said. "Whether the next administration includes Kamala Harris, that remains to be seen."
"Right now, there's a conversation going on," she continued. "Whether it's within donors, whether it's within the White House, Congress, and even the local media here where the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has come out and said that President Biden should not run for another term."
On June 29, the AJC published an editorial calling Biden to "bow out of the presidential race."
But other prominent Georgia politicians have voiced support for the president's continued candidacy.
Representative Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, told 11Alive's political show, The Georgia Vote, this week that she'll back Biden as long as he's on the ballot.
"Right now, President Biden is the only person who can make the decision if he is going to remain in this race," Williams said. "As long as President Biden is at the top of this ticket, I am standing with my president because he has stood with the American people time and time again."
You can watch 11Alive's politics show, The Georgia Vote, Sunday's at 11 a.m. right after Meet the Press.