‘Run against me’: Joe Biden digs in, dares challenger for his party’s presidential nomination to step forward

Joe Biden is defiant daring those who want him out of the presidential race to challenge him but already he’s received backlash.

Joe Biden has dared anyone within the Democratic Party who opposes his status as its presidential nominee to challenge him directly, in a defiant new attempt to end speculation about him standing aside.

But already, the brickbats are flying with claims Mr Biden’s ultimatum is “ridiculous”.

On Monday morning, US time, as members of the US Congress returned to work in the capital after a week-long break, the US President launched a double-pronged salvo.

First Mr Biden wrote, and publicly released, a letter to congressional Democrats in which he made it clear he had no intention of ending his candidacy. Then he called into a morning TV show on MSNBC for a live interview.

“I’m getting frustrated by the elites in the party. Oh, they know so much more,” Mr Biden said during that interview, sarcasm in his voice.

“Any of these guys that don’t think I should run: run against me. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention.”

The Democratic National Convention, which is scheduled to take place in Chicago in mid-August, is where delegates will formally choose the party’s nominee.

Mr Biden waves as he boards Air Force One. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Biden defiant: ‘I will not do that’

Mr Biden has been under escalating pressure to step aside since his disastrous performance in the first of two scheduled TV debates against Donald Trump late last month, which reinforced existing concerns about his age and mental acuity.

Polls already showed him losing to Mr Trump before that debate, and his position has worsened since. According to several of those polls, large majorities of Americans doubt his ability to do the job for another four years.

In his letter to members of Congress on Monday, the 81-year-old President said he had spent time consulting “extensively” with party officials and regular voters.

“I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump,” Mr Biden wrote.

“I have heard the concerns that people have – their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them. Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries.

“I also know these concerns come from a place of real respect for my lifetime of public service and my record as President, and I have been moved by the expressions of affection for me from so many who have known me well.

“I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”

Joe Biden during his halting debate performance. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

Donald Trump has rarely appeared in public since the debate, apparently content to let the Democrats argue among themselves. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP

‘Ridiculous’ Critic hits out a Biden letter

Mr Biden argued that, having won the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries with 87 per cent of the total vote, albeit against negligible opposition, he had secured the nomination and was obliged to continue.

“We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively,” Mr Biden said.

“I received over 14 million votes, 87 per cent of the votes cast across the entire nominating process, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin.

“This was a process open to anyone who wanted to run. Only three people chose to challenge me. One fared so badly that he left the primaries to run as an independent. Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated.

“The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee. Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?

“How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that. I will not do that.”

However, a Biden critics who previously ran for the Democratic Party rubbished Mr Biden; s claims that he had won the primaries and so was untouchable.

“Joe Biden citing his support in the primaries is ridiculous,” said Andrew Yang on Twitter/X.

Mr Yang ran as a challenger in the nominating process for the 2020 Presidential election. He later founded a centrist party called the Forward Party and was touted as a possible Vice President pick for outside candidate Robert F Kennedy.

“They cancelled the primary in multiple states,” he said of Mr Biden’s nomination. “Refused to have debates and told contenders it was career suicide to challenge him. If there had been debates we would have seen his decline months ago”.

The three lonely opponents Mr Biden mentioned were Congressman Dean Phillips, author Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Jason Palmer. None of the Democratic Party’s serious alternative candidates challenged its incumbent President for the nomination.

Mr Biden went on to stress that he had “no doubt” he would beat Mr Trump in November.

“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end,” he said.

“We have one job, and that is to beat Donald Trump. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us.”

Mr Biden speaks on the South Lawn of the White House. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

Feisty TV interview

Shortly after that letter was released, Mr Biden phoned in to Morning Joe on MSNBC. It is known to be his favourite morning news show, and he is friendly with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

“The bottom line here is that we’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere,” he told the program’s viewers.

“We had a Democratic nominating process where the voters spoke clearly.”

He said he had never wavered from his belief that he would beat Mr Trump and intended to “demonstrate” that throughout the week.

“There are a lot of people of good will, who love you, you believe you did a great job in your first term, who are still concerned,” Scarborough told the President. He then pushed Mr Biden to address Democrats who were concerned by an answer he gave in another recent interview.

In that interview, when asked how he would feel if he lost to Mr Trump, Mr Biden replied: “I’ll feel, as long as I gave it my all and I did the good as job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”

Several Democrats felt that answer was a touch self-centred. When Scarborough brought it up, Mr Biden laughed.

“I’ve not lost. I haven’t lost. I beat him last time, I’ll beat him this time,” he said.

“(Trump) is just a liar, and he hasn’t done a damn thing since the debate. He’s been riding around on a golf cart down at Mar-a-Lago, talking to his wealthy friends.

“I don’t care what the millionaires think.”

Joe Biden and his wife Jill. Picture: Chris Kleponis/AFP

Mr Biden said he’d been out “testing himself” since the debate.

“Look, I had a bad night,” he acknowledged.

“The night of that debate I was out. I was out until two o’clock in the morning, that very night. It drives me nuts, people talking about this.

“Look at the crowds we’ve gathered everywhere from Atlanta to North Carolina to Pennsylvania. And look at the enthusiasm.

“And where the hell has Trump been? What has Trump said or done, except deny and lie about what he’s for.”

The President said critics of his strategy had been wrong in both 2020 and 2022, when the expected “red wave” of support for Republican candidates in the midterm elections failed to materialise.

“You may remember, I was one of the few people out there publicly saying, before the 2022 elections: ‘There will be no red wave.’ Because I’d been all over the country. I didn’t believe it at all,” he said.

“It wasn’t just that it didn’t happen. I was predicting beforehand that it wouldn’t happen. Because I’ve got a pretty good political instinct and eye.

“The American public is not going to move away from me.”