The White House on Wednesday categorically rejected the possibility that Joe Biden would withdraw his candidacy for a second term, despite serious concerns about his fitness.
The 81-year-old president is “absolutely not” considering throwing in the towel, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, nearly a week after a disastrous performance during his debate with Donald Trump.
“I messed up. I made a mistake. It’s 90 minutes on stage. Look what I did for three and a half years,” he said in an interview with a local Wisconsin radio station recorded Wednesday.
“I was bad in a debate,” he repeated Thursday in another interview with another local radio station in Pennsylvania.
“I will be in the race until the end and we will win,” he assured during a conference call intended to remotivate his campaign teams, according to a source close to him.
A Democratic representative from the House of Representatives, Raul Grijalva (Arizona), was the second to openly call on Joe Biden to “get out of the race,” in an interview with New York Times.
These calls have so far not found support among the party’s heavyweights, particularly among the Democratic governors, influential figures in American political life, whom he brought together on Wednesday at the White House.
The Democratic governors “will support him,” assured two of them, Wes Moore (Maryland) and Tim Walz (Minnesota) at the end of the meeting, during a brief exchange with the press. The second assured that the president was “fit” to fulfill his functions.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, considered a rising star in the party, did not meet with reporters but wrote on X after the meeting: “Joe Biden is our nominee. He is here to win and I support him.”
Confidences
But Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, said in an interview with New York Times that Biden should throw in the towel.
“Biden must step aside to allow a strong Democratic leader to defeat Trump and preserve our security and prosperity,” he said.
The American executive is trying to put out the fire rekindled by revelations from the New York Times and CNN.
Both media outlets claim, based on confidences from anonymous sources close to Joe Biden, that the latter is questioning the future of his candidacy.
“It is false to suggest that there is any thought of ending the campaign,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Nearly a week later, the Democrat has not erased the very painful impression left by those 90 minutes facing his Republican rival, during which he stammered, stared into space and sometimes lost his train of thought.
Two surveys published on Wednesday by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report a clear lead for Donald Trump in national voting intentions.
Joe Biden plans to give an interview with ABC television on Friday and hold a solo news conference next week, aiming to demonstrate his ability to speak without a teleprompter.
He will also visit two key states, Michigan on July 5 and Pennsylvania on July 7.
“Two images”
Donald Trump has also planned a trip to Pennsylvania on July 13, after a trip to Florida on the 9th. The 78-year-old Republican “will beat any Democrat” in November, his campaign team assured on Wednesday.
“We have two images of Joe Biden. One is a man who serves his country, who fights for the American people, who is feisty, aggressive, impulsive. And we also have this image of Biden as an old man who probably needs to have his car keys taken away. The question is which one will prevail,” says Peter Loge, a professor at George Washington University.
With speculation mounting that he could be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, who continues to support him staunchly in public, Joe Biden must absolutely convince his own party to close ranks.
In addition to meeting with governors, he met Wednesday with Democratic leaders in Congress, where lawmakers are worried about their chances in the legislative elections that accompany the presidential election in November.
All this weighs on the young volunteers responsible for running the campaign across the country.
“His cognitive abilities seem to have declined considerably and that is a huge problem for a presidential candidate,” Yampiere Lugo told AFP.
The 25-year-old Democratic activist, based in North Carolina, believes that Joe Biden will have to “throw in the towel” if the polls get worse.
