Biden rejects growing pressure to abandon his presidential campaign, vows to stay ‘to the end’

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden vowed to stay in the 2024 presidential race during calls with campaign staff and meetings with Democratic lawmakers and governors on July 3, as he sought to shake off calls for him to drop out after

his shaky debate performance

last week.

He dialled in to a call with worried members of his campaign team and told them he was not going anywhere, according to two sources familiar with the call.

“No one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end,” Mr Biden said in a separate e-mail blast by his campaign, urging supporters to “pitch in a few bucks” to help defeat his Republican rival Donald Trump in the Nov 5 US presidential election.

The US President met virtually and in person with 24 Democratic governors and the mayor of Washington on the evening of July 3 to reassure them that he is up to the job of standard-bearer for the party after the faltering debate performance.

Only three of the governors – the leaders of New York, Minnesota, and Maryland – met reporters afterwards,

vowing to stand with Mr Biden

after what they called an honest discussion about his bad performance in the debate.

“The President has always had our backs. We’re going to have his back as well,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said Mr Biden’s June 27 night debate performance against former US president Trump was bad, but added that he felt Mr Biden was fit for office.

Concerns about Mr Biden’s age and mental acuity exploded after the debate with Trump, in which the US President mumbled under his breath,

lost his train of thought at times

and, at one point, talked of beating Medicare.

The US President has said that

he was tired after two foreign trips

, and the White House has said he had a cold.

Asked on July 3 if Mr Biden was considering stepping down, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Absolutely not.”

A Wall Street Journal survey found Trump beating Mr Biden by a margin of 48 per cent to 42 per cent, up 1 percentage point, while a New York Times/Siena poll found Trump’s lead over Mr Biden had widened by three points to 49 per cent to 43 per cent.

In a call among House Democrats on July 3, Representative Raul Grijalva from Arizona called for Mr Biden to drop out of the race, while Representative Seth Moulton from Massachusetts pointed to Mr Biden’s age as a liability.

“The unfortunate reality is that the status quo will likely deliver us president Trump,” Mr Moulton said in a statement. “President Biden is not going to get younger.”

While the campaign has highlighted fund-raising successes with grassroots donors and held damage control calls with donors, Mr Reed Hastings, a major Democratic Party donor and a co-founder of streaming platform Netflix,

called for Mr Biden to step aside

.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris has, meanwhile,

gained support as his potential replacement

.

Mr Dmitri Mehlhorn, an adviser to LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic mega donor Reid Hoffman, told Reuters his team would “enthusiastically support a ticket led by our tough and savvy Vice-President if Biden were to step aside for any reason”.

Mr Mehlhorn said Ms Harris was the only serious national contender who had already been subjected to major attacks by Trump’s Make America Great Again supporters.

“We would lose Joe’s superpower brand, but we would gain other benefits and would still be competitive,” he said.

Governors as alternatives?

Democrats and donors concerned about Mr Biden’s viability in the November election will be closely watching an interview with ABC News expected to be taped and aired on July 5 during a campaign visit to Madison, Wisconsin.

The White House said Mr Biden has spoken with Democratic leaders in Congress as well as Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn, who was instrumental in Mr Biden’s 2020 win.

Mr Clyburn, who has said he would back Ms Harris as the presidential candidate if Mr Biden stepped aside, told CNN on July 3 that the party should hold a “mini-primary” if Mr Biden quits the race. He is the first senior party member to talk publicly about how replacing Mr Biden as a candidate could work.

Some of the governors who met Mr Biden on July 3 could be potential rivals if pressure for him to step aside were to increase, but many of them also speak on Mr Biden’s behalf on the campaign trail.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear have all been mentioned as possible replacements to Mr Biden. REUTERS