According to information from the White House, US President Joe Biden does not want to withdraw from the presidential election campaign, despite calls to do so from his own party. Biden will “under no circumstances” withdraw, said press spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday (local time). The 81-year-old received support from the governors of his Democratic Party after his weak performance in the televised debate against his opponent Donald Trump.
Since Biden’s appearance in the televised debate with Trump, a debate has erupted among Democrats about whether they should replace the 81-year-old with another candidate for the presidential election on November 5. Biden spoke with a hoarse voice during the TV debate, repeatedly got tangled up in his formulations and did not finish sentences.
The New York Times and CNN reported that Biden told a close confidant that he needed to quickly convince the public that he could hold office. “He knows that if he has two more such events, things will look very different,” the confidant said of Biden, according to the New York Times.
The White House immediately dismissed speculation that Biden would withdraw. “He is continuing as president, he is continuing with his election campaign,” said spokeswoman Jean-Pierre.
In a phone call with campaign and party staff, Biden himself reiterated this. “I am in the race to the end and we will win because when Democrats unite, we will always win,” he said, according to campaign sources.
Biden repeated the message at an emergency meeting at the White House with Democratic governors. The New York Times and CNN reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources, that Biden told the governors he needed to get more sleep and avoid events after 8 p.m. According to CNN, some governors reacted unhappily to this announcement.
Officially, however, Biden received backing. “We said we would stand by his side,” said Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who is considered an up-and-coming politician and potential future presidential candidate. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Biden was “fit” for the office.
A major Democratic campaign donor, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, however, demanded in the NYT that Biden must “step aside so that an energetic Democratic leader can defeat Trump and ensure our security and prosperity.”
CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen also spoke in favor of this. The weak performance in the television debate against Trump was not a “botched, botched debate,” “but it showed his condition,” Röttgen said on ARD.
Most recently, Biden had cited his fatigue after several trips abroad as the reason for his weak performance. It was not very smart to “travel around the world several times” shortly before the duel, he said.
After his rival Trump initially held back, he declared on Thursday in his online network Truth Social that Biden had “choked like a dog” during the televised debate.
In an interview recorded Wednesday with Wisconsin-based Civic Media, Biden said he “messed up.” In an interview with Pennsylvania radio station Wurd on Thursday, he said, “I had a bad debate.” But those 90 minutes did not erase “what I’ve done in three and a half years.”
ABC News announced the first television interview with Biden since the TV debate for Friday, which will be broadcast in full on Sunday. The 81-year-old also plans to travel to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days. Both states are so-called swing states in which neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can expect a clear victory and which will ultimately be decisive for the outcome of the presidential election.
