President Biden quickly left the East Room of the White House on Wednesday after the Medal of Honor ceremony, ignoring questions about his health.
The 81-year-old commander in chief is under mounting pressure to withdraw his candidacy for re-election after a disastrous debate last week.
After presenting the Medal of Honor to two Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War during the ceremony, he quickly ran toward the exit, dodging questions.
Despite the media attention on the way out of the East Room, Biden glared straight ahead and ignored the barrage of questions.
On Wednesday, Biden assured campaign staff during a phone call that despite growing calls for him to resign, he is still in the race for the 2024 presidency.
After presenting the Medal of Honor to two Union soldiers who fought in the Civil War during a ceremony on Wednesday, he quickly left and dodged questions
He said: ‘I want to say it as clearly and directly as possible: I’m running, no one is pushing me out.
“I’m not going away. I’m in this race until the end and we’re going to win.”
The certainty comes after a New York Times Report that Biden made a major statement considering ending his re-election campaign.
“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.
Jean-Pierre was questioned for the better part of an hour about the president’s health, confirming that he has a cold but that he has not yet visited a doctor.
Jean-Pierre claimed that the president’s poor performance was due to “jet lag” suffered during his two international trips 12 days before the debate.
She also confirmed that Biden has not undergone a medical exam since February.
Biden speaks during a presidential debate with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, Thursday, June 27, 2024
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
Biden even admitted that he nearly fell asleep on stage Tuesday night at a fundraising event in the posh Virginia suburb of McLean, Washington DC
He told the audience he was “not very smart” because he “traveled around the world a couple of times” before his televised confrontation with former President Donald Trump.
Biden traveled to France twice in a row for the D-Day commemoration and then to Italy for the G7 in June.
After his return, the President went on vacation to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Biden then spent a full week at the presidential retreat Camp David resting and preparing for the debate.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Biden was so exhausted from traveling that his advisers shortened his debate preparation by two days so he could still have time for the beach getaway.
At Camp David, debate prep didn’t start until 11 a.m., and Biden was given time to nap each afternoon.
The president made it clear during his campaign rally on Tuesday that his travels are “not an excuse but an explanation.”
President Joe Biden speaks during a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Biden will host the annual Independence Day celebration at the White House on Thursday and travel to Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, where he will speak with 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.
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.