Joe Biden is “absolutely not” withdrawing from the White House race, his spokesman said on Wednesday, as pressure mounts on the president after his disastrous performance in the debate against Donald Trump.
There has been panic among Democrats after last week’s debate, and internal talk about finding a replacement candidate before the November election has been fueled by polls showing Trump in the lead.
The New York Times and CNN reported that Biden, 81, told a key aide that his re-election could be in jeopardy if he failed to quickly reassure the public that he was still capable of serving the office.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre flatly denied the reports and insisted Biden had “absolutely” no intention of withdrawing his nomination as the Democratic nominee.
“The President’s vision is clear and he remains in the race,” he told reporters.
Multiple media outlets reported that Biden acknowledged in conversations with campaign and party staff that his inconsistent, unbalanced answers against Trump have hurt him – but he insisted he is in the race for the long haul.
“I want to put it as clearly as I can — as simple and straightforward as I can: I’m running for office … Nobody is forcing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race until the end, and we will win,” the senior Democrat said, according to Politico.
– Result –
The Biden campaign has been desperate to reassure Democratic donors and voters that the president’s showdown against Trump was a one-time thing, and not a fatal blow to his hopes of a second term.
But party leaders have expressed surprise at what they see as a distraction and excuse from the president and his allies.
Lawmakers in Congress feel that the Democratic Party’s chances of capturing the House of Representatives, retaining the Senate and returning to the White House are fading away.
Concerns were further fueled by a New York Times poll conducted after the debate, which showed Trump holding his largest lead ever over Biden — 49 percent versus 43 percent among likely voters.
On Wednesday — six days after the debate — Biden completed a round of conversations with Democratic congressional leaders, and staffers are expressing concern over the slow pace of outreach.
“We’re getting to the point where it wasn’t the debate that killed him, but the way he handled it that followed,” one senior Washington Democratic operative told political outlet Axios.
Amid growing concern among the party’s grassroots, Biden will visit key states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days.
His quick-thinking abilities and ability to articulate a coherent viewpoint will be tested on Friday when he sits down for his first interview with ABC News since the debate.
– ‘More worrying’ –
The President has recently cited fatigue as an explanation for his poor debate performance, saying it was unwise of him to have “traveled around the world two or three times” prior to the debate.
But he was back in the U.S. for about two weeks and spent two days resting and six days preparing for the debate.
The Times said that people who have interacted with the president have found that his mental fogginess has become “more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.”
Democratic lawmakers have begun to express their doubts publicly, with two saying on Tuesday they expect Biden to lose to Trump in November and another two calling on him to withdraw from the White House race.
Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva became the second Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw from the election.
“If he’s the nominee, I would support him, but I think this is an opportunity to look elsewhere,” Grijalva said, according to the Times.
The street where the president grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had signs sympathetic to Biden — but no campaign signs for either candidate.
“I felt embarrassed for him. I thought he wasn’t feeling well and probably shouldn’t have gone on stage,” said Jamie Hayes, a 73-year-old grandmother.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)