Joe Biden forcefully rejects efforts to push him out of race
‘I am running and going to win again,’ the US President told supporters in Wisconsin.
US President Joe Biden defiantly rejected calls for him to withdraw from the presidential race following last week’s disastrous debate performance, telling voters in battleground Wisconsin that he was determined to win re-election against Donald Trump.
Biden acknowledged at a rally in Madison that there was speculation about whether he might pull out of the contest in favour of another Democratic candidate, ahead of the party’s August convention in Chicago. Biden declared: “I am running and going to win again,” prompting cheers from the audience in the liberal enclave.
“Guess what, they’re trying to push me out of the race. Well let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race,” Biden said.
The President is seeking to bolster his support at a crucial stretch, aiming to turn back a tide of doubts about his candidacy and ability to defeat the former president. After the Wisconsin rally, he was sitting for an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, which will air in full on Friday night, the network said.
Biden moved gingerly in greeting voters ahead of the speech, giving hugs to some supporters. His delivery was forceful, while marked by the occasional glitches that have drawn increased attention in the past week. At one point, he told supporters, “I beat Trump, I will beat him again in 2020,” and then added: “By the way, we’re gonna do it again in 2024.”
In a reminder of Biden’s challenges, as the President walked on stage for the event, a young man standing in the camera shot behind the President displayed a sign that read, “Pass the Torch, Joe.”
In his remarks, Biden made repeated jokes and references to his age. “There’s been a lot of discussion about my age. I know I look 40,” he said, flashing a big smile. He then ticked off a series of Democratic political accomplishments, asking the audience if he was too old to score wins on student loans, climate and naming the first Black woman Supreme Court justice, among other subjects. He then boasted about the latest monthly jobs report. “How about the 200,000 jobs we announced yesterday?”, referring to a report that was actually released earlier Friday.
Biden allies see the coming days as key to the President’s re-election hopes, with a recent Wall Street Journal poll showing Trump opening up a bigger lead and voters’ concerns about the President’s fitness mounting after his disastrous debate last week.
The Biden campaign said Friday that it plans to conduct a $US50 million ($74m) advertising blitz during July. Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses, also plan to make stops in every battleground state, the campaign said, working to regain ground lost to Trump.
Top Democratic lawmakers and donors have urged Biden to make his case directly to voters and stave off further calls for him to step aside as the Democrats’ nominee ahead of next month’s party convention. He has done radio interviews this week and muscled through an evening of Fourth of July events, in which he made forceful remarks but also stumbled over his words at times – doing little to dispel concerns.
On Friday (Saturday AEDT), Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey became the first Democratic governor to suggest that Biden needs to evaluate his future. She praised Biden’s tenure but said the “best way forward right now is a decision for the President to make.” “Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” she said.
The President had met Wednesday with Healey and other Democratic governors, who said Biden was clear-eyed about what needed to change following the debate. The President expressed the need to be more unscripted and in public more, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
One of the people said Biden, in the meeting, spoke of the need for more sleep and suggested he should avoid events that begin after 8pm because they tend to go late.
Asked about those comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday that the President “works around the clock.”
“It’s a 24/7 job, 365 days out of the year,” she said. “Obviously, he also recognises the importance of striking a balance and taking care of himself, just like we all have to.”
In Wisconsin, Biden hoped to reassure Democrats and attempt to shift the race away from a referendum on his abilities to a choice between him and Trump.
“I think Joe Biden has been the best president in my lifetime,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, who said she was “eager to see what he can do with a second term”.
But state Republicans pointed to Democrats distancing themselves from their presumptive nominee, noting the absence of Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.), who was scheduled to hold campaign events elsewhere in the state instead of joining Biden.
“In the span of less than 10 days, the Biden campaign has gone from one of confidence to calamity to crisis,” said state GOP Chairman Brian Schimming.
A Journal poll released Wednesday found that Trump has a six-point lead over Biden among voters nationally, with 80 per cent saying the President is too old to run for a second term. The share of voters who say Biden is too old to run increased seven points from the Journal’s survey in February. The Journal’s new poll was conducted in the days after the debate last week.
Biden will continue to hold public events, appearing in Philadelphia over the weekend and then convening foreign leaders in Washington next week for the annual North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, which will include a solo news conference by the President.
In recent days, Biden has called Democratic congressional leaders as well as his biggest allies in Congress to convince sceptics that he is capable of serving another four years.
Democratic lawmakers in Congress have raised deep concerns in private about Biden remaining on the ticket. Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett has called on Biden to withdraw and other lawmakers have gone public with their concerns about the President continuing to be the Democratic nominee.
– Dow Jones Newswires
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