WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden vowed on Friday to continue his campaign for re-election even as more fellow Democrats in Congress urged him to end it.
More than one in 10 congressional Democrats have now publicly called on the 81-year-old incumbent — who is isolatingat his Delaware home with a case of COVID — to drop out following a disastrous June debate against Republican Donald Trump that raised questions about Biden’s ability to win or to carry out his duties for another four years.
Biden remained defiant, saying he would resume campaigning soon.
“I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record and the vision that I have for America,” he said in a statement, referring to a policy plan developed by Trump’s conservative allies.
The divide among Democrats stood in sharp contrast to the scenes that played out this week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where former party rivals united around Trump, who accepted the Republican nomination in a rambling speech that featured his familiar mix of grievance and bombast.
So far, 32 of the 264 Democrats in Congress have openly called for Biden to end his campaign, while other senior Democratic leaders have pushed him behind the scenes to do so, according to sources and media reports.
Democrats are increasingly worried about a Republican sweep in the November 5 election that could leave Trump and his allies not only in charge of the White House but also with majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“Your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot. It is for these reasons that I urge you to step aside,” wrote Representative Zoe Lofgren, one of at least nine Democratic lawmakers to call on Biden to drop out on Friday.
Lofgren is a close ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the most influential Democrats. Pelosi has not publicly called on Biden to drop out but has privately told him he cannot win, according to a White House source speaking on condition of anonymity.
After weeks of insisting he will remain in the race, sources say Biden is now taking calls to step aside seriously, and multiple Democratic officials think an exit is a matter of time.
👀 #PassTheTorchJoe pic.twitter.com/Ba7mgbe6Ed https://t.co/7LMVB5MF0s
— PassTheTorchJoe (@PassTheTorch24) July 19, 2024
A Democratic group called Pass the Torch said it would run TV ads on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” one of Biden’s favourite shows, urging him to drop out.
Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon acknowledged that Biden faces a difficult path to re-election but said his support has not fallen significantly in recent weeks.
“We have a lot of work to do to make sure that we are reassuring the American people that, yes, he’s old, but he can do the job and he can win,” she said on MSNBC.
Were Biden to step aside as a candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, could fill the role. Reuters/Ipsos polling shows her as performing marginally better against Trump in a theoretical head-to-head matchup.
(REUTERS)
