(Washington) Senator Bernie Sanders, a figure of the American left, called on Saturday to keep Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for the presidency, despite the pressure put on the president to withdraw due to doubts about his state of health.
“Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and must be the candidate. And with an effective campaign that speaks to working families about their needs, he will not only beat Mr. Trump, but beat him soundly,” the left-wing congressman said in an op-ed in New York Timescalling on Democrats “to stop the bickering and quibbling.”
Since a calamitous debate on June 27 against the 78-year-old Republican billionaire, Joe Biden has been assailed by harsh criticism regarding his physical and mental state. Some 20 congressmen are now calling on him to step down.
But the Democrat assured again on Friday in Michigan that he would indeed be a candidate.
“I’m running and we’re going to win,” he told supporters in Detroit.
PHOTO MANDEL NGAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
United States President Joe Biden
All the polls since the debate indicate that Joe Biden’s disastrous performance, while it is fueling Americans’ concerns about his ability to govern for much longer, is not doing much to move the electoral lines.
But many seem to give the Republican a relative advantage for November. The most worrying trend for the Democrat remains his persistent deficit in some decisive states.
Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden’s opponent in the 2020 Democratic primaries, showed his support on Saturday, saying he would do “everything in my power to see President Biden re-elected.”
“Yes. I know this: Mr. Biden is old, gaffe-prone, stiff-footed, and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But I also know this: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate,” he wrote.
The 82-year-old senator also takes the recent French legislative elections as an example: “It is time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite their deep political differences, have united this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.”