Adam Schiff reportedly tells donors

The high-profile California Democrat Adam Schiff told donors Joe Biden remaining on top of the ticket for November would cost the party the presidency and probably the House and Senate too, the New York Times reported.

"I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose," Schiff told donors in East Hampton, New York, last Saturday, the paper said, citing "a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event".

"And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House."

According to the Times, Schiff spoke before Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally.

As the paper noted, Democratic calls for Biden to stand aside, stoked by concerns about his age and cognitive fitness for office, surged after a disastrous debate with Trump in Atlanta last month but have dropped off since the Trump shooting, in which one rallygoer was killed and two injured.

Nineteen House Democrats and one senator have publicly called for Biden to quit.

Schiff is not among them but he is an influential voice in the party, a former House intelligence chair who led Trump's first impeachment, sat on the January 6 committee and is now a candidate for US Senate.