‘Trying to push me out of the race’: Joe Biden rejects calls for him to step aside

Washington: US President Joe Biden has defiantly hit back at people he says are trying to “push” him out of the 2024 election, insisting that last week’s disastrous debate was just a bad night and not emblematic of a more serious cognitive condition.

Amid growing calls to make way for another candidate to run for the White House following his debate performance last week, a fired-up Biden made it clear he would not back down, telling supporters: “I’m not going to let a 90-minute debate wipe out 3½ years of work.”

President Joe Biden greets supporters at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin on Friday.Credit: AP

“I can’t say it was my best performance,” he told a rally in Wisconsin, one of the swing states Democrats must hold to win the election.

“But ever since then, there’s been a lot of speculation: ‘What’s Joe gonna do? Is he gonna stay in the race?’ Well, here’s my answer. I am running and going to win again!”

Later, in an interview with America’s ABC News, he also took responsibility for his poor form last Thursday, and when asked by presenter George Stephanopoulos if it was “a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition”, he replied: “It was a bad episode. No indication of a serious condition. I was exhausted. I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing. It was a bad night.”

However, the 81-year Democrat declined to take a neurological and cognitive test and release the results to reassure voters of his fitness for office, saying he has such a test “every single day” as he carries out his duties as president and deals with world leaders.

“Watch me,” he said. “There’s a lot of time left in this campaign.”

The comments came during a make-or-break period for America’s oldest president, who has privately acknowledged that he has just days to salvage his candidacy amid lingering panic from Democrats, donors and even his top allies about his ability to defeat Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump.

In another sign of discontent, House Democrats leader Hakeem Jeffries has called a meeting of members next week as more came out publicly on Friday to urge Biden to stand down.

Among the latest was Massachusetts congressman Seth Moulton, who told his local radio station that while the president “has done an enormous service to our country” it was now time for him to “let new leaders rise up”.

In a bit to recalibrate, the Biden campaign has launched a $US50 million ($75 million) media blitz, as well as a month of swing-state visits. Next week, he will also conduct a press conference while hosting world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington.

His Wisconsin rally was also energetic, prompting Trump’s campaign to suggest he must be on performance-enhancing drugs – a claim Trump repeatedly made before debates in 2016 and 2020.

“Your debate team should’ve used this dosage on debate night,” one of Trump’s senior advisers, Jason Miller, wrote on X in response to a Biden post.

Biden also reminded those seeking an alternative that he has not only defeated the former president, he also won the majority of party delegates in the Democratic primaries earlier this year.

Biden meets with campaign volunteers in Racine, Wisconsin on May 8.Credit: AP

This effectively means that to have a new candidate, Biden would need to voluntarily stand down so the party can either rally around a replacement or have an open convention to choose one.

“Some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for,” he told supporters as they chanted “Let’s go Joe!”

“Well guess what? They’re trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can. I’m staying in the race!”

He later repeated this sentiment in his ABC interview, but seemed oblivious to the magnitude of concern or the dive he had taken in the polls, saying that only “the Lord almighty” could convince him to step aside.

Biden also said that critics were “wrong” if they claimed he was putting his personal interests above the nation’s by staying in the race. Pressed on whether he would stand down if he could be convinced by allies and party elders that Democrats would lose the House and Senate if he was at the top of the ballot ticket in November, he replied: “I’m not going to answer that. It’s not going to happen.”

Democrats had a mixed response to the interview, with some noting that while there were no major slip-ups, Biden still needed to make his case for re-election. Others, such as former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, said he was “dangerously out of touch with the concerns people have about his capacities moving forward and his standing in this race”.

Trump, meanwhile, has kept a relatively low profile this week, allowing the scrutiny to remain on Biden, who he said had “choked like a dog” during last week’s 90-minute verbal sparring match.

In a post on social media, the 78-year-old Republican challenged Biden to a second presidential debate, but suggested it should be a “no holds barred” contest with no moderators.

In a new court filing on Friday (Washington time), Trump’s lawyers also asked the judge overseeing his classified documents trial to freeze the case following the Supreme Court’s immunity decision this week.

The Wisconsin speech sought to shift the focus back onto Trump by painting the Republican as a liar, a threat to democracy, and a “one-man crime wave”.

Biden appeared animated and passionate in his remarks, although his speech only lasted about 15 minutes and he was aided by a teleprompter.

Donald Trump and Biden in last week’s debate.Credit: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

He did, however, tackle the issue of his age head-on, telling supporters: “I keep seeing old stories about being too old. I wasn’t too old to create over 15 million new jobs. I wasn’t too old to put the first black woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America, to sign the Respect for Marriage Act, or to sign the most significant gun safety laws in 30 years.”

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