The White House on Wednesday categorically rejected the possibility that Joe Biden would withdraw his candidacy for a second term, despite heated debate over his fitness.
The 81-year-old president is “absolutely not” considering throwing in the towel, his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, nearly a week after a disastrous performance during his debate with Donald Trump. According to several media outlets, Joe Biden himself committed to staying in the race during a call with his teams.
The American executive is trying by all means to put out the fire, rekindled Wednesday morning by anonymous comments from a close friend of the president. He confided that the president, whom even his supporters have criticized for not taking the measure of events, is indeed wondering about the future of his candidacy.
“That’s absolutely false,” Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed. He “continues to campaign,” she said Wednesday, considering that Joe Biden was “still as lively as ever.”
Nearly a week later, the Democrat has not erased the very painful impression left by these 90 minutes of debate against his Republican rival, during which he stammered, stared into space and sometimes lost his train of thought. The fault, according to his spokesperson, was a “cold” from which the president suffered during the debate, but also “jet lag” – about ten days after returning from the G7 in Italy.
According to a New York Times poll conducted after the event, 74% of voters surveyed now express concern about the Democratic leader’s age. And Donald Trump has significantly widened his lead over Joe Biden in the race for the White House, according to the same poll.
The president plans to give an interview with ABC television on Friday and hold a solo news conference next week, the aim being to demonstrate his ability to speak fluently without a teleprompter. And to keep his White House bid alive.
He will also travel to two key states in the coming days, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where his energy will be tested.
Close ranks
Will that be enough to convince Democrats? Although many, including party figures like Nancy Pelosi, have publicly questioned the president’s mental acuity, open calls for withdrawal have so far been confined to a handful of little-known lawmakers.
On Wednesday, Joe Biden aimed to close the Democratic ranks around him. He met with his party’s influential Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, and was scheduled to host Democratic governors at the White House early Wednesday evening.
“We will have a healthy discussion with the president,” one of them, JB Pritzker of Illinois, told CNN Tuesday night. “Right now, Joe Biden is our nominee, I’m 100 percent behind him, unless he makes a different decision, and then we’ll all discuss what the best course of action is,” he added.
The governor of Illinois, but also those of California (Gavin Newsom), Michigan (Gretchen Whitmer) or Pennsylvania (Josh Shapiro) are considered as potential future candidates for the White House. None has so far publicly questioned the candidacy of Joe Biden, who crushed the Democratic primary without having a real opponent.
The heated debates about the American president’s form, however, directly affect his base, and in particular the young volunteers responsible for preaching the good word about his campaign across the country.
“What I criticize Biden for is that his cognitive abilities seem to have declined significantly and that’s a huge problem for a presidential candidate,” Yampiere Lugo told AFP. The 25-year-old Democratic activist based in North Carolina believes that Joe Biden should “throw in the towel” if the polls continue to deteriorate.