Biden responds to desperate Democratic calls to withdraw from presidential race
Joe Biden continues to insist he will run in the 2024 race until the end, amid growing calls for him to be ousted.
The President and Vice President Kamala Harris met for a campaign meeting during their luncheon on Wednesday to reassure each other after Biden’s disastrous performance at the debate prompted calls to withdraw from the race.
“Let me say this as clearly as I can, as simply and directly as I can: I’m in,” Biden said during the call, according to reports.
He added: ‘Nobody is pushing me out. I’m not going away. I’m in this race until the end and we’re going to win.’
The pledge follows a New York Times report that Biden has told a key figure he is considering ending his re-election campaign.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to reassure campaign staff about the feasibility of re-election during a luncheon call on Wednesday.
“He knows that if he does two more events like this, we will be in a different situation by the end of the weekend,” the ally said of the debate show and upcoming events for the president.
The White House denied the report, with Biden’s deputy spokesman Andrew Bates writing on X: “That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had given us more than 7 minutes to comment, we would have told them.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters at her Wednesday briefing that Biden is not preparing to withdraw from the race.
Biden will host the annual Independence Day celebration at the White House on Thursday and travel to Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, where he will also speak to ABC News for his first post-debate interview.
The president will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Sunday for a campaign rally.
Both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are key swing states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 race.
In those states and the five other battlegrounds, Trump holds a lead in the polls after their debate in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday, June 27.
New poll shows Donald Trump leads by an average of three points in all seven swing states after last week’s debate with Joe Biden
Since the debate, Biden and his team have conducted extensive damage control, reaching out to party members, staff, lawmakers, donors, allies and voters to convince them that Biden is still a viable candidate who can beat Trump again.
But many within the party are looking for other options, suggesting candidates such as Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
No one can beat Trump in the national and crucial state polls, and all candidates are behind Biden in his chances of beating the former president.