‘I’m staying in the race’: Biden scrambles to save his reelection bid
President Biden, fighting to save his endangered reelection effort Friday, defiantly said, “I’m staying in the race” during a campaign rally in a critical battleground state as he prepares for a network television interview where his every answer is sure to be scrutinized for evidence of his competency and fitness to run for office.
In front of roughly 300 supporters at a Wisconsin middle school, Biden again acknowledged his subpar debate last week, saying he “can’t say it was my best performance” but that amid speculation over what he would do, he had an answer: “I am running, and I’m going to win again.”
“I beat Donald Trump,” a forceful Biden said as the crowd cheered and waved campaign signs. “I will beat him again.”
Biden, relying on a teleprompter for his remarks, attacked his presumptive Republican challenger almost immediately, laying into Trump by pointing out that the former president once said that “George Washington’s army won the revolution by taking control of the airports from the British.”
As the crowd laughed, Biden continued, “Talk about me misspeaking.”
The rally preceded an interview that could be a watershed moment for the 81-year-old Biden, who is under pressure to bow out of the campaign after his debate performance against Trump, 78, ignited concern that the Democrat is not up for the job for another four years.
The interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, being taped after the Wisconsin rally, is expected to be intensive and probing, and two people familiar with the president’s efforts said he had been preparing aggressively. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Democratic voters in deep-blue LA County debated whether Biden should remain the presidential nominee following his disastrous debate performance last week.
There was broad agreement that Biden cannot afford to have another “bad day,” which is how he wrote off his debate flop. It was not clear that even a so-so performance would be enough to satisfy concerns about his fitness to serve.
The White House itself was raising the stakes for Biden’s interview, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that it expects “millions of Americans” to watch.
While private angst among Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists is running deep, most in the party have held public fire as they wait to see if the president can restore some confidence with his weekend travel schedule and his handling of the Stephanopoulos interview. It will air in full on ABC on Friday night.
But at least three House Democrats have called for Biden to step down as the nominee, with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), expressing his concerns in a Thursday radio interview and joining Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) in seeking an alternative.
“President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in ... George Washington’s footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump,” Moulton told the radio station WBUR on Thursday.
While not going that far, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement Friday that Biden now has a decision to make on “the best way forward.”
“Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” Healey said. “Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark R. Warner reached out to fellow senators this week to discuss whether to ask Biden to exit the race, according to two people familiar with the effort who requested anonymity to talk about private conversations.
The Virginia Democrat’s moves are notable given his role as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and his reputation as a lawmaker who has supported Biden and developed working relationships with colleagues in both parties. Warner’s effort was first reported by the Washington Post.
There were also a few signs of discontent at Biden’s campaign rally Friday, with one supporter on stage waving a sign that read “Pass the torch Joe” as the president walked onto the stage. His motorcade was also greeted at the middle school by a few people urging him to move on.
Many Democratic lawmakers, who are hearing from constituents at home during the holiday week, are split on whether Biden should stay. Lawmakers have been deeply frustrated by his campaign’s response to the crisis. Privately, discussions among the House Democrats flared this week as word spread that some of them were drafting public letters suggesting the president should quit the race.
Yet pushback from other House Democrats was fierce, and none of the letters from either Democrats in competitive reelection bids or those in easier races that were reportedly being discussed were ever made public.
“Any ‘leader’ signing a letter calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Biden appears to have pulled his family and inner circle closer while attempting to prove that he’s still the Democrats’ best option for competing in November’s election.
Biden’s reelection campaign is pushing ahead with aggressive plans. It plans to pair his in-person events with a $50-million ad campaign this month meant to capitalize on high-viewership moments such as the Summer Olympics, which begin in Paris on July 26.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are scheduled to travel to every battleground state this month, while organizers are planning to knock on more than 3 million doors in July and August to do personal outreach to voters in a new $17-million effort.
Biden is scheduled to campaign in Pennsylvania on Sunday. He was initially set to speak before the National Education Assn. in Philadelphia on Sunday, but the campaign called off the plans following the group’s strike announced Friday. The president will not cross a picket line, the campaign said.
The California Democrat endorsed Biden twice for president. She says he deserves a chance to show his disastrous debate performance was an anomaly. If he can do so.
He will also travel to southwestern states, including Nevada, after hosting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington next week, the campaign said Friday. He’ll also continue to focus on the “blue wall” states that have been critical for him in the past: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In a strategy memo released Friday morning, the campaign also specifically emphasized that Biden would participate in “frequent off-the-cuff moments” — once a hallmark of the gregarious, glad-handling politician’s career that have nonetheless dwindled throughout his presidency.
For Biden, every moment now is critical to restoring the lost confidence stemming from his shaky performance in Atlanta last week. Yet the president continued to make slipups that did not help that effort.
During an interview with WURD radio in Philadelphia that aired Thursday, Biden tripped up and said, “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, the first Black woman to serve with a Black president” — scrambling some of his often-used lines about his pride in serving with the first Black president and choosing the first Black woman to be vice president.
Such verbal glitches are not out of the ordinary for Biden but are getting magnified attention in this environment.
In a hastily organized gathering with more than 20 Democratic governors Wednesday evening, Biden acknowledged that he needs to get more sleep and limit evening events so he can be rested for the job, according to three people granted anonymity to speak about the private meeting. California Gov. Gavin Newsom later told reporters in Holland, Mich., that Biden’s remark about limiting events after 8 p.m. was said in jest, noting that he said it “with a smile on his face.”
In trying to explain away those comments, Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden “works around the clock” but that he “also recognizes the importance of striking a balance and taking care of himself.”
Still, Newsom said no one in the room was “sugar-coating” the reality of last week’s debate.
“You watched the physiology. You saw everything about it. It was the breathing, it was the physical, the whole thing,” Newsom said at a subsequent event in Holland.
He said Biden asked all the governors for advice, and he told the president to focus more on discussing the future.
Associated Press writers Long and Kim reported from Madison. The AP’s Joey Cappelletti in Saugatuck, Mich., and Aamer Madhani, Lisa Mascaro and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
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