The White House said Biden had “absolutely” no intention of withdrawing as the Democratic nominee.
Washington:
Joe Biden will “absolutely not” give up the race for the White House, his spokeswoman said on Wednesday, as pressure mounted on the president following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
Panic gripped Democrats after last week’s debate, and internal rumors about finding a replacement candidate before the November elections were amplified by polls showing Trump widening his lead.
The New York Times and CNN reported that Biden, 81, acknowledged to a key ally that his re-election bid was at stake if he could not quickly reassure the public that he was still up to the job.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre categorically rejected these reports and insisted that Biden had “absolutely” no intention of withdrawing as the Democratic nominee.
“The president has clear eyes and will continue in the race,” she told reporters.
Biden admitted on a call with campaign and party officials that his incoherent and unfocused responses against Trump hurt him, multiple media outlets reported — but he insisted he was in the race for the long haul.
“Let me say this as clearly as possible – as simply and directly as I can: I’m running… no one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win,” said the veteran Democrat, according to Politico.
– Consequences –
Biden’s campaign has been desperate to reassure Democratic donors and voters that the president’s performance against Trump was unique and not a fatal blow to his hopes for a second term.
But party figures have expressed bewilderment at what they consider to be deviations and excuses from the president and his advisers.
In Congress, legislators see that the Democrats’ prospects of taking over the House of Representatives, remaining in the Senate and returning to the White House are fading.
The concern was compounded by a New York Times poll conducted after the debate that showed Trump with the largest lead ever over Biden — 49% to 43% of likely voters.
It wasn’t until Wednesday — six days after the debate — that Biden completed a round of calls with Democratic leaders in Congress, and officials have expressed dismay at the glacial pace of outreach.
“We’re getting to the point where it may not have been the debate that killed it, but rather the consequences of how they handled it,” a top Democratic operative told Washington political outlet Axios.
Aware of growing alarm among the party’s grassroots, Biden will target the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days.
He may be tested on his ability to think on his feet and articulate a coherent vision when he sits down with ABC News on Friday for his first television interview since the debate.
– ‘Most worrying’ –
The president cited fatigue as a new explanation for his poor debate performance, saying it was unwise to travel “around the world a few times” before the debate.
But he had been back in the United States for almost two weeks and spent two days relaxing and six preparing for the debate.
The Times said people who interacted with the president found his mental confusion “increasingly frequent, more pronounced and more troubling.”
Democratic lawmakers have begun to make their doubts public, with two saying Tuesday they expect Biden to lose to Trump in November and another calling on him to drop out of the White House race.
Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva became the second incumbent Democrat to call on Biden to step down.
“If he is the candidate, I will support him, but I think this is an opportunity to look elsewhere,” Grijalva said, according to the Times.
On the street where the president grew up, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, there was support for Biden – but there were no campaign signs for either candidate.
“I was embarrassed for him. I felt like he didn’t feel well and probably shouldn’t have gone on stage,” said grandmother Jamie Hayes, 73.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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