U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper said Wednesday that he believes it could be “in the best interests of the country” if President Joe Biden ends his bid for reelection, though the Colorado Democrat didn’t call on Biden to exit the race, instead suggesting that the president could be nearing that decision.

“Joe Biden has always put the country first. He’s done what’s best for America,” Hickenlooper told Reuters in an interview. “He’s working towards that.”

Said Hickenlooper: “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.”

Hickenlooper’s remarks came as leading Democrats — reportedly including former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — increased pressure on Biden to step aside amid worries the 81-year-old’s shaky performance in last month’s presidential debate could help hand the White House to former President Donald Trump and control of Congress to the Republicans.

Hickenlooper, who was among the Democrats who competed with Biden for the 2020 presidential nomination, said there was widespread “sorrow and anguish” among Democrats that Biden might not be on the ticket in November, calling Biden “still beloved.”

“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.”

In Colorado, however, Hickenlooper said he’s heard overwhelming support from constituents — regular voters, he emphasized, not donors or insiders — for Biden to relinquish the nomination.

“When there’s that much unease and that much dissatisfaction, it is hard for anybody to be able to unite the party,” Hickenlooper said.

Noting that Biden could “still in the end decide to stay in,” the former brewpub owner described Biden’s decision-making procession in familiar terms: “Everyone’s got their own rate of fermentation.”

A spokesman for Hickenlooper told Colorado Politics on Thursday that the senator didn’t have anything to add to his reported remarks.

A Biden campaign spokesman on Thursday rejected speculation that his boss was considering dropping out, the Associated Press reported.

“The president has made his decision,” Quentin Fulks, Biden’s principal deputy campaign manager, told reporters in Milwaukee, where the GOP was gathered for the Republican National Convention.

“I do not want to be rude, but I don’t know how many more times I can answer that,” Fulks said. “There are no plans being made to replace Biden on the ballot.”

While only one Democratic member of Colorado’s congressional delegation — U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood — has explicitly urged Biden to step aside, Hickenlooper’s Democratic Senate colleague, Michael Bennet, last week warned that Trump was headed toward winning the November election “by a landslide,” and with it securing Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

Bennet, who also ran for president in 2020, said Democrats “should be having a discussion about” whether Biden was the party’s strongest nominee this year. “This is something for the president to consider,” Bennet said.