Will Biden step aside? Embattled president can save Democrats by dropping out soon.

The pressure from leaders in his own party on President Joe Biden to give up the Democratic nomination is mounting. They fear that Biden will not only lose to Republican nominee Donald Trump, but also drag down the party’s hopes of keeping at least one chamber of Congress.

Biden could get out of the race for president soon, possibly this weekend, although his campaign chair insisted on Friday that he is "more committed than ever" to staying on as the Democratic nominee and defeating Trump.

As one of the people who called on Democrats to replace Biden early in this process, I strongly believe that the sooner Biden gets out, the better for his party.

Biden could endorse Kamala Harris – or open up the nomination process

But how he gets out matters as much as when. Here are four scenarios:

The Anointing: Biden endorses Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement and encourages the party to do so as well. The vast majority of Democratic delegates are pledged to vote for Biden, and in theory they should listen to him. Also, it would be really hard for a party that relies on Black voters in so many crucial states, and is running on women’s issues such as abortion access, to turn down the first Black, South Asian and female vice president of the United States. She’s the logical inheritor of a faltering Biden.

However, there are downsides to Harris. She polls about the same as Biden in swing states. She doesn’t seem to give any new states to the Democrats, whereas some other choices would almost guarantee a Democratic victory in crucial states like Michigan or Pennsylvania. She didn’t run a good campaign in 2020, and she hasn’t had a great vice presidency (although few politicians do. It’s a tough job to shine in!).

Will Democrats replace Biden? Governors of Michigan and Pennsylvania are strong options to beat Trump.

The Stage Manager: Biden announces as he leaves that he will propose a series of debates among Democrats who choose to run, and a process for winnowing it down to 10 or five if too many people try to run. Many Democrats have stuck with Biden for so long because they fear the chaos of the party disintegrating into a hastily created, bitterly contested and badly run process. Biden may feel he needs to leave the party with a process for his replacement, and invite Harris and anyone else to take part.

This scenario offers the best hope for the Democrats to defeat Trump. A contested nomination, which might end dramatically in a series of convention votes, will be extraordinarily exciting. If it begins before the Democratic National Convention starting Aug. 19 in Chicago, there will be more time for Democratic delegates to think through the choices, and more time for national news media to vet the backgrounds and weak points of them.

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What about DNC? Biden could let the Democratic Party fight it out.

You Guys Figure It Out: The president steps aside and calls on party leaders to figure out his replacement. This seems the least likely scenario, but given how badly hurt Biden might be by the painful process of his own party rejecting him, this could happen.

And who would blame Biden for doing this? If he anoints Harris, and she does badly, he could get blamed. If he sets up a process, and it becomes a debacle like the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses, he’ll get blamed.

Biden has tried for weeks to keep running, and he may simply say to the party, “OK, you geniuses − you think it is so easy to replace me, go for it. Good luck!”

Democrats have to rally. Soon. Trump is gaining momentum exactly as Biden is losing his.

Convention Chaos: Nothing is certain in this increasingly bizarre election year. Biden could still try to stay, and the question then would be will the Democratic delegates revolt in sufficient numbers to deny him the nomination? A couple of dozen prominent Democrats are now on the record calling for Biden to get out. If he stubbornly holds on until the convention, you could see an actual floor flight over a nomination that was completely sewed up.

That would be by far the worst outcome for the Democrats, because it could wound Biden terribly and most likely not lead to his replacement. Also, even if Biden were to lose at this stage, there would be almost no time for an effective process to emerge.

The risks of replacing Biden are clear, but the rewards are there as well. Almost any possible nominee will have a better shot at beating Trump than Biden does, who has almost no chance of changing the public’s mind about his deterioration after his disastrous presidential debate.

The Republican National Convention was remarkably well run. Now the Democrats will have to do something far more difficult − run a convention when they don’t know who they are nominating. At least, not yet.

The Democrats will begin with a contest for the nomination unlike any the nation has seen for decades, and if they are to win in November, they have to end with unity.

Jeremy Mayer is an associate professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he also directs the master's and Ph.D. programs in political science.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Biden drop out? Leaving race is the only way Democrats beat Trump