“I will run,” US President Joe Biden is said to have said resolutely to his campaign team, according to insiders. He is supported by high-ranking Democrats – so far.
Amid growing concerns within the Democratic Party, leading governors on Wednesday reaffirmed their support for the re-election of US President Joe Biden. At a meeting on Wednesday at the White House with 24 Democratic governors, they openly discussed Biden’s poor performance in the recent TV debate. Maryland Governor Wes Moore reported this at a subsequent press conference.
“The president has always backed us. We will back him too,” he said. Moore acknowledged that there is still a lot of work to be done before the election on November 5. But he stressed that Biden is determined to stay in the race.
Top politicians from Biden’s party had initially held back from public criticism. Then on Tuesday, the first Democratic representative in the US House of Representatives, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race and make room for another candidate. A second Democratic representative, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, joined the calls on Wednesday.
Joe Biden “ran to win”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul expressed confidence after meeting with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, confirming that all governors present had pledged their support to Biden. “The president ran to win,” she said. Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, acknowledged that Biden’s performance in the debate was weak, but reiterated his belief that Biden is fit for office. He warned of the dangers of another Trump presidency, which he described as “chaos and destruction.”
Biden’s campaign team stressed that the president had reaffirmed his determination to “defeat the existential threat posed by Donald Trump at the ballot box in November.” All participants had renewed their commitment to do everything they could to ensure a victory for Biden and Harris.
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The meeting took place against the backdrop of growing concerns within the Democrats about Biden’s age and suitability for a possible second term. Biden – at 81, the oldest president in US history – spoke with a hoarse voice during the TV debate with his likely challenger Trump on CNN last week, repeatedly getting tangled up in his formulations and not finishing sentences. Since the appearance, a debate has flared up among the Democrats about whether they should replace the 81-year-old with another candidate for the presidential election.
