Democratic leaders on Sunday rallied support for US President Joe Biden after his poor performance in last week’s debate, while the White House denied a report that Biden was meeting with family to assess his candidacy.
No major party leader has called on Biden to step down, while prominent Democrats, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, have expressed full support amid doubts from ordinary Americans — and even the New York Times editorial board has called on him to step down.
The wave of support from the party comes after 81-year-old Biden’s faltering performance in Thursday’s debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump in which he often hesitated, stumbled over words and lost his train of thought, highlighting concerns about his age.
“This is not a matter of performance in terms of the debate; it’s a matter of performance of the presidency,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday.
“On one side of the screen, there’s honesty, on the other side, there’s dishonesty,” he said, echoing a number of party leaders who have attempted to deflect attention from Biden’s disastrous performance to the lies told by Donald Trump during the debate.
According to a CBS News survey conducted two days after the debate, nearly three-quarters of registered voters now believe Biden should not run for president, including 46 percent of Democrats.
Biden and his family departed for the Camp David presidential retreat late Saturday night, where he was expected to assess the future of his reelection campaign following his performance, NBC News reported.
However, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates posted on X that the trip had been planned prior to the debate, questioning the publication and claiming the publication failed to seek comment on the matter.
‘Only Democrats’ for this position
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign has reported it has raised $33 million since the debate, including $26 million from grassroots donors.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Biden “absolutely” should not drop out of the race.
“It’s our job to make sure he crosses the finish line in November. Not just for him, but for the country.”
On Friday, Biden sought to quell the negativity with a fiery election speech in North Carolina in which he vowed to keep fighting.
He appeared alongside his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, who fiercely defended her husband amid calls for him to step down.
“On that campaign stage in North Carolina, I saw a strong, committed and capable Joe Biden,” Chris Coons, a Democratic senator from Biden’s home state of Delaware, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I think it was a weak debate performance from President Biden,” Coons said, yet “at the same time, Donald Trump had a catastrophic debate performance where, yes, he spoke clearly, but what he said was lie after lie.”
He added that Biden is “the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)