Soon after President Joe Biden’s June 27 debate with Donald Trump, his exit from the 2024 US presidential race seemed inevitable to some old allies.
Donors called it a disaster and made frantic phone calls to discuss next steps. Newspaper columnists demanded that he step down. Some Democratic lawmakers said bluntly that their party leader should quit.
Two weeks later, Biden remains firm on his stance.
Although he acknowledged that at 81 he was no longer young and attributed his performance to exhaustion, he failed to deny in a televised interview that it was not simply a bad night of debate.
More Democrats are expected to call on Biden to quit the race in the coming days. For now, the White House says it plans to “turn the page” on the incident, even as some opinion polls show Trump’s lead growing and swing states tilting Republican.
Why is Biden ignoring fellow Democrats and insisting he will defeat the 78-year-old Trump in the Nov. 5 election?
Interviews with Democratic officials, aides, strategists and donors reveal that the reasons range from the personal to party politics.
Biden believes in Biden
Biden’s decision to run for reelection, despite his age, was centered on his belief he was the best Democratic candidate to defeat Trump, officials and allies told Reuters at the time.
These sources said Biden was skeptical about his Vice President Kamala Harris’s ability to turn out centrist voters, especially in key swing states, and about the strength of any deep bench of Democratic governors and lawmakers who are likely to be the party’s future leaders.
Explaining his decision to stay the course, Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos last week: “I’m the most qualified person to beat him (Trump).” He later added that only “God Almighty” could convince him differently.
A defining principle of Biden’s troubled personal life and long political career has been perseverance, which he says he learned from his parents.
“My dad, who was going through a tough time, always told me, ‘Champ, when you fall down, get back up. Get up,'” he said at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, when he accepted the nomination as Barack Obama’s running mate.
He said his mother taught him: “Failure is inevitable at some point in life, but giving up is unforgivable.”
Actor George Clooney echoed the concerns of many Democrats about the theory, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Wednesday that it was time for Biden to drop out of the race. “The one battle he cannot win is the battle against time. None of us can,” Clooney said.
Biden’s closest aides are also on target
According to sources close to Biden, his inner circle of top aides have strengthened his determination to remain in office.
Biden has for decades surrounded himself with a small team of senior aides, such as political adviser Mike Donilon, consultant Steve Ricchetti and deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, who have guided him through past crises and urged him to persevere.
This dynamic has only gotten more intense since this debate.
“I hear Steve and Bruce and Mike are more steadfast than that,” said one former Biden aide close to the White House. “They’re entrenched and they’re not moving.”
A White House official confirmed that and said the approach applies to all of Biden’s senior staff.
Many of his allies, including senior adviser Anita Dunn, harbor a strong sense of grievance and resolve about Biden: that he has been treated unfairly by the media, that he hasn’t received the credit he deserves for taking down Trump in 2020, and that he has been underestimated before and has proven his critics wrong.
Many in Biden’s field feel the same way, the White House official said.
A memo circulated Thursday by Jen O’Malley Dillon and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign chair and manager, respectively, said there was no better choice than Biden.
“The polls do not take into account the negative media environment any Democratic candidate will face. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already a certainty is President Biden,” he wrote.
Some Democrats fear prospects with Harris
Biden’s ability to push back against Democratic calls for him to exit the race has less to do with his own candidacy but with the indifference among some Democrats about potential replacements.
In interviews, about a dozen Democrats, including elected officials and activists, many from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, all expressed deep concerns about Biden’s mental fitness and ability to defeat Trump.
But he also had little confidence in the Democrat bench led by Harris.
If Biden steps down, he believes the party cannot afford to ignore Harris — the nation’s first Black vice president and first female vice president — because that could threaten the diverse coalition needed to win the White House.
“It’s going to be Harris who has to win, and I don’t think that puts us in a better position to win than a lame-duck Joe Biden,” said one senior Democrat in Pennsylvania.
On the other hand, some Democrats say Harris can bring new enthusiasm to the party and infuse new energy among young and black voters.
Congress’ fear and traditions
Shortly after Biden’s debate, leaders of both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued statements supporting Biden, which appeared to slow the pace of criticism.
With his endorsement, it became harder for rank-and-file members of the Democrats to publicly abandon Biden this week.
As of Thursday, only 11 of the 213 Democrats in the House of Representatives and one of the 51 Democrats in the Senate had urged the president to withdraw from the race.
But several House members said they believed there was more to come, saying they were hoping Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would convey criticisms from within the party to Biden.
“I wish more people were less scared,” said Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, one of the House members who has called on Biden to end his campaign.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
