Tag: News

• The Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference draws the ultrawealthy to Idaho for a weeklong retreat.
• The event allows business leaders to connect — and potentially strike some deals.
• Attendees include Open AI CEO Sam Altman,  media heir Shari Redstone, and Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Investment firm Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley Conference is again drawing in the world's ultra-wealthy for a weeklong retreat in the idyllic Idaho wilderness from July 9 to July 13.

Often called the summer camp for billionaires, the conference has been held since the 1980s and provides CEOs and business leaders a chance to connect over outdoor activities and presentations on national security and geopolitics.

Sometimes, these leaders connect and create billion-dollar deals — like Disney's acquisition of ABC or Jeff Bezos' purchase of the Washington Post.

Although many well-known names have already made their way to the Sun Valley Lodge, some notable power players like Warren Buffett and Elon Musk will not be in attendance, Variety reported.

Here's who's already shown up.

Media heir Shari Redstone, who recently reached a deal for a Paramount-Skydance merger, was one of the first to arrive on Tuesday.

Redstone, who owned a majority stake in Paramount, agreed to sell her controlling shares to allow a merger between the flailing media company and Skydance.

"We're gonna save the world together!" Redstone said to reporters on Tuesday as she arrived, per Bloomberg's Michelle Davis.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a Sun Valley regular, rolled up in a golf cart.

Altman has had a whirlwind couple of months at OpenAI, including some high-profile exits of two top AI safety researchers and a hacking scandal.

Disney CEO Bob Iger, who recently won his proxy war against activist investor Nelson Peltz, was also in attendance.

Peltz, the 81-year-old billionaire and former Disney investor critical of Iger's leadership, waged a $70 million campaign to place himself on Disney's board. Peltz failed and sold off his shares.

Apple CEO Tim Cook flashed a peace sign when he arrived for the conference.

Tim Cook, who succeeded Apple's founder Steve Jobs as CEO in 2011, said last year that he hopes his successor will "come from within Apple."

Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg is attending the conference with her husband Tom Bernthal

Sheryl Sandberg stepped down as Meta's COO in June 2022 and left the social media giant's board in January 2024.

The Harvard alumna tied the knot with former NBC News producer Tom Bernthal in August 2022, seven years after the death of her husband Dave Goldberg.

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who once dated Sandberg, was also in attendance

Bobby Kotick left Activision Blizzard in December 2023, following Microsoft's acquisition of the company in October 2023. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Kotick was thinking of buying TikTok.

In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok unless the social media platform's parent company, ByteDance, sold it.

Michael Eisner, former Disney CEO, was also in attendance.

Eisner served as CEO between 1984 and 2005 before Iger stepped in and took over.

David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, chatted with the press before entering the lodge.

Zaslav was also photographed chatting with Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Major League Baseball, outside the lodge.

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, walks past the press after her arrival Tuesday.

The GM CEO recently announced that the company would abandon its plan to be 100% electric and focus on hybrid vehicles.

Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group, spoke to reporters while clutching bike handles.

Diller, a known Democratic donor, recently joined many business leaders dismayed by President Joe Biden's debate performance. He's expressed that he would no longer support Biden's candidacy for president.

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, steps out of an SUV during his arrival Tuesday.

The Palantir CEO recently made controversial remarks about Pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia, saying that they should be sent to North Korea.

Billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was spotted arriving on Tuesday as well

Robert Kraft, a frequent attendee, was seen in past conferences in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The Columbia University alum and megadonor pulled his support for the Ivy League school after it became a hotbed of unrest and protests over Israel's war in Gaza.

• There's no one secret to living to 110 like supercentenarians.
• But supercentenarians tend to share nine traits, according to an expert.
• These include having friends and maintaining a healthy weight. 

A supercentenarian expert shared with Business Insider the nine things people who live to 110 and beyond have in common.

Jimmy Lindberg has studied thousands of supercentenarians in her role as a scientific advisor for Longeviquest, an organization that verifies the ages of the world's oldest people.

She said factors out of our control —such as long-living relatives, being born in the winter months, and being female (95% of supercentenarians are women) — are associated with longevity. Living somewhere warm helps, too.

It's unsurprising that research also suggests wealth is a factor. According to the Financial Times, the poorest Americans live 50 fewer years than their wealthy counterparts, as they are more likely to be obese, be exposed to opioid use and gun violence, and have less financial security and access to medical care.

But "lifestyle is of course a contributor" to a long, healthy life, Linberg said. Here are the factors she shared.

Be resilient

Being resilient and able to endure hard times is one of the key predictors of longevity in supercentenarians, Lindberg said.

"You don't have to be a super endurance athlete or anything like that, but you have to keep going," she said.

A 2023 study by researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid on the traits centenarians tend to share found looking for a silver lining and carrying on in the face of adversity was common.

Business Insider has previously reported on how to build resilience.

Be spiritual

Spirituality, meaning believing in something greater than ourselves versus following a specific religion, is also very common among the supercentenarians that Lindberg has studied.

This is reflected in research, with one 2016 study by a team at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health finding that women who attended a religious service more than once a week were 33% less likely to die of any cause, potentially because it provided social support and boosted their optimism.

Dr. Joseph Maroon, an 83-year-old neurosurgeon and Ironman triathlete, previously told BI that he believes spirituality has contributed to his health and longevity as much as diet and fitness.

Maintain a healthy weight

"There haven't really been any obese supercentenarians," Lindberg said. "They tend to maintain a relatively healthy weight throughout their lives."

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of conditions including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney diseases, and liver disease — all of which increase the risk of early death.

One 2022 study published in the journal JAMA Network Open on 29,621 people found that those with a BMI of more than 30, which is considered "obese," lived to 77.7 on average, while people with "normal" or "overweight" BMIs (18.5-29.9) lived almost five years longer, to around 82.

BI has previously reported on how to lose weight healthily.

Take steps to prevent chronic disease

Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes, are the leading causes of death and disability in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Whether we develop chronic diseases is partly out of our control due to a range of factors from our genes to our environment, but there are certain steps we can take to lower our risk.

They include not smoking, eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in sodium and saturated fats, being physically active, and reducing how much alcohol you drink, according to the CDC.

Eating a Mediterranean diet can help reduce the risks of developing chronic disease, BI previously reported.

Have a strong support network

Multiple studies have found links between maintaining strong social relationships with living longer, including the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an 85-year-long project that followed three generations to see what kept them healthy and happy.

Dr. Robert Waldinger, the study's lead researcher, previously told BI that healthy relationships had a surprisingly large impact on people's odds of living longer.

And, according to professor Rose Anne Kenny, a gerontologist at Trinity College Dublin, having good relationships is just as important to longevity as eating well and exercising.

• An ex-OpenAI employee said the firm is going down the path of the Titanic with its safety decisions.
• William Saunders warned of the hubris around the safety of the Titanic, which had been deemed "unsinkable."
• Saunders, who was at OpenAI for 3 years, has been critical of the firm's corporate governance.

A former safety employee at OpenAI said the company is following in the footsteps of White Star Line, the company that built the Titanic.

"I really didn't want to end up working for the Titanic of AI, and so that's why I resigned," said William Saunders, who worked for three years as a member of technical staff on OpenAI's superalignment team.

He was speaking on an episode of tech YouTuber Alex Kantrowitz's podcast, released on July 3.

"During my three years at OpenAI, I would sometimes ask myself a question. Was the path that OpenAI was on more like the Apollo program or more like the Titanic?" he said.

The software engineer's concerns stem largely from OpenAI's plan to achieve Artificial General Intelligence — the point where AI can teach itself — while also debuting paid products.

"They're on this trajectory to change the world, and yet when they release things, their priorities are more like a product company. And I think that is what is most unsettling," Saunders said.

Apollo vs Titanic

As Saunders spent more time at OpenAI, he felt leaders were making decisions more akin to "building the Titanic, prioritizing getting out newer, shinier products."

He would have much preferred a mood like the Apollo space program's, which he characterized as an example of an ambitious project that "was about carefully predicting and assessing risks" while pushing scientific limits.

"Even when big problems happened, like Apollo 13, they had enough sort of like redundancy, and were able to adapt to the situation in order to bring everyone back safely," he said.

The Titanic, on the other hand, was built by White Star Line as it competed with its rivals to make bigger cruise liners, Saunders said.

Saunders fears that, like with the Titanic's safeguards, OpenAI could be relying too heavily on its current measures and research for AI safety.

"Lots of work went into making the ship safe and building watertight compartments so that they could say that it was unsinkable," he said. "But at the same time, there weren't enough lifeboats for everyone. So when disaster struck, a lot of people died."

To be sure, the Apollo missions were conducted against the backdrop of a Cold War space race with Russia. They also involved several serious casualties, including three NASA astronauts who died in 1967 due to an electrical fire during a test.

Explaining his analogy further in an email to Business Insider, Saunders wrote: "Yes, the Apollo program had its own tragedies. It is not possible to develop AGI or any new technology with zero risk. What I would like to see is the company taking all possible reasonable steps to prevent these risks."

OpenAI needs more 'lifeboats,' Saunders says

Saunders told BI that a "Titanic disaster" for AI could manifest in a model that can launch a large-scale cyberattack, persuade people en masse in a campaign, or help build biological weapons.

In the near term, OpenAI should invest in additional "lifeboats," like delaying the release of new language models so teams can research potential harms, he said in his email.

While in the superalignment team, Saunders led a group of four staff dedicated to understanding how AI language models behave — which he said humans don't know enough about.

"If in the future we build AI systems as smart or smarter than most humans, we will need techniques to be able to tell if these systems are hiding capabilities or motivations," he wrote in his email.

In his interview with Kantrowitz, Saunders added that company staff often discussed theories about how the reality of AI becoming a "wildly transformative" force could come in just a few years.

"I think when the company is talking about this, they have a duty to put in the work to prepare for that," he said.

But he's been disappointed with OpenAI's actions so far.

In his email to BI, he said: "While there are employees at OpenAI doing good work on understanding and preventing risks, I did not see a sufficient prioritization of this work."

Saunders left OpenAI in February. The company then dissolved its superalignment team in May, just days after announcing GPT-4o, its most advanced AI product available to the public.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Tech companies like OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Meta have been engaged in an AI arms race, sparking investment furor in what is widely predicted to be the next great industry disruptor akin to the internet.

The breakneck pace of development has prompted some employees and experts to warn that more corporate governance is needed to avoid future catastrophes.

In early June, a group of former and current employees at Google's Deepmind and OpenAI — including Saunders — published an open letter warning that current industry oversight standards were insufficient to safeguard against disaster for humanity.

Meanwhile, OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who led the firm's superalignment division, resigned later that month.

He founded another startup, Safe Superintelligence Inc., that he said would focus on researching AI while ensuring "safety always remains ahead."

• A Navy sailor got into trouble for trying to access Joe Biden's medical records.
• But he ended up accessing the records of another person called "Joseph Biden," officials said.
• The sailor, who was disciplined after a probe, said he only did it "out of curiosity."

A Navy sailor was disciplined after he tried to access President Joe Biden's medical records.

The unnamed sailor was stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, serving in the Navy's hospital corps, CBS News reported.

On February 23, he looked up "Joseph Biden" on the military's Genesis Medical Health System three times, an official familiar with the situation told CBS News.

One of the sailor's coworkers reported the breach on February 26, prompting an investigation into the case.

But the sailor ended up pulling the record of another man with the same name as the president.

"He did not pull up the right Joe Biden," the official told CBS News.

"The MHS Genesis system is a secure health system, and at no time was the President's personal information compromised," Navy Commander Tim Hawkins said to CBS News.

The official told the outlet that the sailor admitted to the act, and said he had tried to access the records "out of curiosity."

The Associated Press reported that the sailor received administrative discipline but remained in the Navy after the probe.

Curiosity about the president's health may have peaked recently, particularly after his poor debate performance with former President Donald Trump left many questioning his fitness to run for a second term.

On Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham said that all presidential candidates should have to take cognitive tests to prove their fitness to run.

And a Monday White House press briefing turned heated when reporters probed Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for details of a neurologist's visits to the White House.

She confirmed that Biden had, in fact, seen a neurologist in January as part of his annual physical examination.

White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor said in a statement on Monday night that the president saw neurologist and Parkinson's expert Kevin Cannard yearly, and the most recent tests showed no sign of Parkinson's.

For his part, Biden has maintained that he is fit for the job and that he will not step aside.

Anonymous sources told Politico that during a Zoom call with his staffers on July 3, the president said: "Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can — as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running."

Biden reiterated this in a letter to House Democrats on Monday, writing: "I wouldn't be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024."

Representatives for Biden and the Navy didn't immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

• Tokyo Disneyland's owner, Oriental Land, will invest $2 billion to bring Disney cruises to Japan.
• The cruise will operate year-round from Japan starting in early 2029, serving 4,000 guests per sail.
• Disney's cruise business, including parks, contributed 37% to its revenue last year.

Tokyo Disneyland's owner is doubling down on the Disney magic with a new investment in cruises.

Oriental Land, which owns and operates Disney Resorts in Tokyo, said on Tuesday it will invest $2 billion to launch Disney cruises in Japan.

The Tokyo theme park, which opened in 1983, operates like a franchise. It's the only park not fully or partly owned by the Walt Disney Company.

The new agreement with the Mickey Mouse and Toy Story producer will bring year-round cruises to Japan, the company said in a release on Tuesday. The cruise will sail from Tokyo by early 2029.

The 1,250-room cruise will be designed similarly to the Disney Wish, the largest cruise in the Disney fleet. It is expected to carry 4,000 guests.

The new cruise comes as international tourism to Japan skyrockets. In the first three months of the year, 8.6 million tourists visited the country and spent over $11 billion, with more foreigners booking longer trips and spending more because of a weak yen.

The ship marks Disney's second cruise in Asia, after the company announced cruises sailing from Singapore in 2025 last month.

Experiences, which include cruises and parks, made up 37% of Disney's revenue last year — $32.5 billion.

"The cruise business, frankly, is one that has an enormous number of opportunities for us over time, and that is why we're leaning more heavily into that business," said Hugh Johnston, Disney's chief financial officer, on a May earnings call.

Johnston also highlighted "global moderation from peak post-COVID travel" and higher wages as challenges for the company this year.

Disney has five ships in its fleet, which travel to destinations like the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand. A four-night cruise from Florida to the Bahamas starts at about $900 per guest.

• Joe Biden insists that he's still running for reelection.
• But his rival, Donald Trump, seems to be preparing for his running mate, Kamala Harris, to replace him.
• Trump has started using nicknames like "Laffin' Kamala Harris" and "Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris."

President Joe Biden may still be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, but former President Donald Trump doesn't seem to think he will be for long.

Trump has been lasering in on Vice President Kamala Harris in the weeks following Biden's stumbling performance at their debate on June 27. Harris is widely seen as the most likely replacement for Biden if he were to step aside — as his second-in-command, who will also have access to his campaign war chest.

Trump did address the possibility that he might be up against Harris in a video he posted on his Truth Social account on July 3. In that clip, he heaped scorn on Harris' chances of beating him.

"I got him out the race, and that means we have Kamala," Trump said in the clip.

"She's so bad. She's so pathetic. She's just so fucking bad," he added.

But Trump didn't stop there. On Independence Day, he referenced Harris again in another Truth Social post slamming his opponents.

"Respects to our potentially new Democrat Challenger, Laffin' Kamala Harris," Trump said, using a new nickname for the vice president.

"She did poorly in the Democrat Nominating process, starting out at Number Two, and ending up defeated and dropping out, even before getting to Iowa, but that doesn't mean she's not a 'highly talented' politician!" Trump continued, referencing Harris' performance in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.

In fact, "Laffin' Kamala Harris" isn't the only nickname he's coined for her. Trump's campaign used a different nickname for her in a statement released the day before.

"Every Democrat who is calling on Crooked Joe Biden to quit was once a supporter of Biden and his failed policies that lead to extreme inflation, an open border, and chaos at home and abroad," Trump campaign advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said on July 3.

"Every one of them has lied about Joe Biden's cognitive state and supported his disastrous policies over the past four years, especially Cackling Copilot Kamala Harris," the statement continued.

For what it's worth, Trump has a fondness for giving his political opponents unsavory nicknames. In most cases, the derisive nicknames poke fun at a person's physical traits or quirks.

In 2016, he ripped his primary opponents, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, calling them "Little Marco" and "Lyin' Ted" respectively. He also dubbed his former protégé, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, "Ron DeSanctimonious."

Trump has applied his penchant for name-calling to his Democratic rivals too, dubbing Hillary Clinton "Crooked Hillary" and Joe Biden "Sleepy Joe."

In Harris' case, Trump appears to be honing in on how she laughs.

To be sure, Harris has brushed aside calls for her to run for president. The former California senator has instead chosen to double down on her support for Biden and has repeatedly insisted that Biden is fit to lead.

"We always knew this election would be tough, and the past few days have been a reminder that running for president of the United States is never easy," Harris said at a campaign event on Tuesday, per The Washington Post.

"But the one thing we know about our president, Joe Biden, is that he is a fighter and he is the first to say, when you get knocked down, you get back up," she continued.

Representatives for Harris did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Sharon Stone, 66, says she lost $18 million in savings after her stroke when people took advantage of her.
• "My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people's names," Stone told The Hollywood Reporter.
• But even though her health improved, her acting career did not, Stone said at a 2023 event.

Sharon Stone, 66, is opening up about how she dealt with the aftermath of a stroke in 2001.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published on Tuesday, the actor spoke about how the health crisis changed her perspective on life.

"I had a death experience and then they brought me back. I bled into my brain for nine days, so my brain was shoved to the front of my face. It wasn't positioned in my head where it was before. And while that was happening, everything changed. My sense of smell, my sight, my touch. I couldn't read for a couple of years. Things were stretched and I was seeing color patterns," Stone told The Hollywood Reporter.

The "Basic Instinct" actor said that a lot of people thought she was going to die.

It took her seven years to recover from the debilitating stroke, and Stone shared that people ended up taking advantage of her during that time.

"I had $18 million saved because of all my success, but when I got back into my bank account, it was all gone. My refrigerator, my phone — everything was in other people's names," Stone said. "I had zero money."

In July 2019, Stone told Variety about the struggles she experienced while recovering from her stroke, including having to remortgage her house and losing custody of her son during her divorce.

"I lost everything I had. I lost my place in the business. I was like the hottest movie star, you know?" she said. "It was like Miss Princess Diana and I were so famous — and she died and I had a stroke. And we were forgotten."

But even though her health improved, her acting career did not, Stone said at The Hollywood Reporter's "Raising Our Voices" event in June 2023, per Page Six.

"Something went wrong with me — I've been out for 20 years," Stone said, per Page Six. "I haven't had jobs."

According to her IMDB page, Stone has had acting credits in TV, film, and music videos every year since 2003, but none can compare to her '90s fame.

Four years after the iconic scene in "Basic Instinct," involving a peek up her skirt, Stone went on to secure an Academy Award nomination for her role in Martin Scorsese's "Casino" in 1996.

Stone's latest project, "What About Love," was released in February, featuring Andy Garcia. While the film received poor ratings from critics, it implied that Stone isn't ready to take her final bow just yet.

Like Stone, it's not uncommon for older Americans to continue working even as they age.

This is especially so if they've been scammed out of their retirement savings or simply just don't have enough money to support themselves when they stop earning a paycheck.

A 2024 survey of 4,588 adults found that US Gen Xers think they need about $1.56 million to retire comfortably. However, on average, Gen X has $108,600 saved for retirement.

• Days after his big Biden interview, George Stephanopoulos doesn't think the man's up for the top job.
• In a video obtained by TMZ, he said to a passerby: "I don't think he can serve four more years."
• Stephanopoulos is the latest critic to cast doubt on Biden's fitness to run for reelection.

Days after sitting down for an interview with President Joe Biden, George Stephanopoulos has expressed doubts about the man's ability to serve another term.

TMZ obtained a video of the ABC host walking on a street in New York City, where a person asked him about Biden.

In the video, the person filmed Stephanopoulos walking toward him in workout clothes. They panned away from the host as they asked: "Do you think Biden should step down? You've talked to him more than anybody else has lately. You can be honest."

Stephanopoulos responded: "I don't think he can serve four more years."

The anchor confirmed that he'd made that comment but told TMZ: "Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn't have."

An ABC News spokesperson told TMZ: "George expressed his own point of view and not ABC News' position."

During Stephanopoulos' ABC News interview on Friday with Biden, the president gave no indication that he plans to step aside after his disastrous June 27 presidential debate.

He told Stephanopoulos he was just having a "bad night" during the debate. He also repeatedly said in the interview that only the "Lord Almighty" could make him quit the race.

Stephanopoulos isn't the only political commentator who's recently interacted with Biden who's expressed doubts about his ability to run for another term.

CNN's Jake Tapper, who moderated the presidential debate, read a quote from Biden's appearance on Morning Joe" interview with MSNBC.

"That sound bite is supposed to be reassuring," Tapper said.

Top Democrats, donors, and former Biden loyalists have questioned his fitness to run.

But Biden has been defiant in the face of dissent, saying he will not step aside.

Anonymous sources told Politico that during a Zoom call with his staffers on July 3, he said: "Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can — as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running."

He reiterated this in a letter to House Democrats on Monday: "I wouldn't be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024."

"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."

Representatives for Stephanopoulos and Biden didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

• James Carville was one of the masterminds behind Bill Clinton's winning presidential campaign in 1992.
• The Democratic strategist said on Monday that it's "inevitable" that Biden drops out.
• Carville said the Democrats should hold a series of town halls to pick a new candidate.

A former advisor to Bill Clinton doesn't think President Joe Biden will be on the ballot this November.

"I don't predict things. I'm just telling you it's inevitable," James Carville, 79, told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo on Monday.

"He will come to the conclusion. People will get the message to him. He will understand. His family will understand," Carville, who is best known for masterminding Clinton's winning presidential campaign in 1992, said of Biden.

Calls for Biden to drop out have grown following his disastrous performance at last month's presidential debate with GOP rival, former President Donald Trump. The 81-year-old's stumbling responses at the debate raised concerns over his mental acuity and fitness for the presidency.

Biden, however, has repeatedly insisted that he's staying on.

"The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it's time for it to end," Biden said in a letter to congressional Democrats on Monday. "It's time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump."

But Biden's overture won't stem the Democratic Party's waning confidence in him, Carville wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times on Monday.

"Mr. Biden says he's staying in the race, but it's only a matter of time before Democratic pressure and public and private polling lead him to exit the race," Carville wrote. "The jig is up, and the sooner Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders accept this, the better."

In his op-ed, Carville said the Democrats should "hold four historic town halls between now and the Democratic National Convention in August — one each in the South, the Northeast, the Midwest and the West."

The town halls, Carville wrote, can be moderated by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and will see eight candidates battle it out to succeed Biden.

He added that the town halls will also be a good opportunity for the party's delegates to get to know Vice President Kamala Harris, who is widely seen as the best replacement for Biden if he were to drop out.

Carville isn't the only Democratic strategist who has joined the chorus of calls for Biden to step aside. On Sunday, former Obama advisor David Axelrod told CNN that he expects Biden to "lose by a landslide than win narrowly this race."

"If the stakes are as large as he says, and I believe they are, then he really needs to consider what the right thing to do here is," Axelrod said.

Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

• Sen. Michael Bennet said Tuesday he does not think Biden can win the election.
• Bennet's comments came after a report that three Democratic senators don't think Biden can win.
• Bennet said Biden's team has not done enough to address voters' concerns and show Biden can win.

Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado came closer than any other Democratic senator has yet to calling for President Joe Biden to bow out of the presidential race.

Bennet appeared on CNN's "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" Tuesday evening after Axios reported earlier in the day that he was among three Democratic senators who privately expressed they do not think Biden can win the election in November.

Bennet told Collins he was there to confirm publicly that he doesn't think Biden can win.

"I just think the race is on a trajectory that is very worrisome," Bennet said, "if you care about the future of this country."

Bennet cited polling that suggests former President Donald Trump is ahead of Biden and pointed out that at this point in 2020, Biden was polling ahead of Trump, as was Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win the election, and maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House," Bennet said.

"I think that we could lose the whole thing," he said, adding, "The stakes could not be higher."

Though he stopped short of answering whether or not he'd call on Biden to bow out, Bennet said it was a discussion that needs to be had.

He also said the White House had not done enough after Biden's disastrous debate performance to demonstrate they had a plan to win the election and win the battleground states.

In a statement provided to Business Insider, Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz defended the president's commitment to beating Trump in November.

"This was always going to be a close race — and the dynamics at play are the ones we've long anticipated: voters continue to be deeply concerned by Donald Trump and his harmful agenda, and the more we engage and reach out to voters, the more they support President Biden," the statement said. "There are a lot of days between now and election day, and the hard work of earning every single vote is far from over."

The campaign also noted the many expressions of support Biden has received from House and Senate Democrats since the debate.

When Collins pressed Bennet on whether he could see himself eventually calling for Biden to bow out, he did not answer directly but said the White House needed to be doing more to assuage voters, adding, "I think it's critically important they address the concerns of the American people, not ignore them."

"If we just sit on our hands, if we say we're going to disregard what is plainly in front of us and plainly in front of the American people, and we end up electing Donald Trump again as president of the United States, that's going to be a huge tragedy beyond epic proportion," he said. "And it's something I can't live with."

A representative for Bennet did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.