With his reelection campaign facing an existential crisis, President Joe Biden struck a defiant tone, insisting he would stay in the race against former President Donald Trump.
“I’m completely ruling that out,” Biden said Friday when asked whether he would end his reelection campaign, as some allies and donors have suggested he should, amid questions about his health and fitness for four more years in office.
Speaking to reporters on a tarmac in Wisconsin, Biden said he had spoken to “at least 20” members of Congress. “They’re telling me to stay in the race,” he said.
“I am running and going to win again,” Biden said earlier in the day at a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Democratic incumbent, 81, acknowledged that he fared poorly in last week’s presidential debate, when he appeared tired, raspy and inarticulate. “Can’t say it’s my best performance,” Biden said.
Biden spoke with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos Friday after the campaign rally, and ABC will broadcast the interview during a “primetime special” on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. An advance clip will air during ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir,” scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.
But it is far from clear if a single interview, even a successful one, can reverse the damage from the debate against the 78-year-old Trump.
The debate ignited hair-on-fire panic among Biden’s supporters about his ability to campaign, spurring a growing number of them to urge him to withdraw from the race.
Biden delivered a defiant message to those nervous allies Friday, while he attempted to flip the script on the concerns about his age.
“They’re trying to push me out of the race,” he told a crowd of supporters. “Well let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”
“I’m not letting one 90-minute debate wipe out 3 1/2 years of work,” he added.
While Biden sounded consistently louder and clearer in Friday’s speech than he did in last week’s debate, he still occasionally slurred or fumbled over certain words and phrases.
Frustration mounts among Dems
The ABC interview could mark an inflection point for the Biden campaign, which in the wake of the ruinous debate has faced mounting calls from top donors, political allies and supporters in the media to replace the top of the Democratic ticket.
On Capitol Hill, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a longtime Biden ally, has launched a new effort to convene Democratic senators next week to discuss what Biden’s path forward might be, NBC News reported.
Asked on the tarmac about Warner’s effort, the president dismissed it. Warner, he said, “is the only one considering that. No one else has called me to do that.”
On Thursday, Disney heiress and longtime Democratic donor Abigail Disney told CNBC that she will withhold donations until Biden withdraws.
On Wednesday, a group of business leaders corralled by the pro-Democracy Leadership Now Project urged Biden to step aside.
Editorial boards of multiple newspapers, including The New York Times, have issued the same call.
Questions are now swirling about how an alternative candidate, such as Vice President Kamala Harris, might take Biden’s place as the new nominee.
The Trump campaign and Republican Party, in turn, have started ramping up attacks on Harris.
Harris told CBS News on Tuesday, “Joe Biden is our nominee. We beat Trump once, and we’re going to beat him again. Period.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held the line in a gaggle with reporters who peppered her with questions about Biden’s capabilities during the flight to Madison.
“He said he had a bad debate,” Jean-Pierre conceded. But “90 minutes should not overshadow his career, his three-and-a-half [year] tenure as president.”
Biden, she added, “is resolute, strong [and] thinking as clearly as he used to.”
But that solid front โ buttressed by subsequent statements of support from Democratic governors and other allies โ has done little to tamp down the anxieties of Trump’s opponents.
Polls are shifting
Biden, the oldest president ever to serve and would be 86 at the end of a second term, was already struggling before the debate to boost his limp approval ratings.
National polls have consistently showed a neck-and-neck race, but some surveys gave Trump an edge in the key swing states that carried Biden to victory in 2020. Meanwhile, wide swaths of voters have repeatedly expressed concerns about Biden’s age and fitness for office.
After the debate, polls from major media outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, all showed Trump gaining on Biden.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
