United States President Joe Biden has promised to remain in the presidential race and beat his opponent despite growing calls from members of his Democratic Party asking him to withdraw.
The 81-year-old, who is isolating at his beach house in Delaware since his COVID-19 diagnosis, took aim at his rival Donald Trump – who just wrapped up the Republican National Convention – in a series of posts online on Friday, and said he would return to campaigning next week.
Trump’s “dark vision for the future is not who we are as Americans. Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will defeat him at the ballot box,” Biden said. “The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win.”
I’m stuck at home with COVID, so I had the distinct misfortune of watching Donald Trump’s speech to the RNC.
What the hell was he talking about?
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 20, 2024
But 12 more Democratic politicians, including two senators and a group of Congress members, called on the president to step aside.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who is in a tough race for re-election, said in a statement late on Friday that he agrees with “the many Ohioans” who have reached out to him asking for Biden to end his campaign.
New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, who is also up for re-election, became the third Senate Democrat to call for Biden’s exit.
“By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy,” he said.
Top Democratic figures, including Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, have also privately pressured the president to quit, according to media reports.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, and called him the “best person to take on Donald Trump”.
She indicated that the growing unease among top Democrats about Biden’s candidacy did not reflect the broader sentiment across the party.
And in a call with donors on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris said: “We are going to win this election,” US media reported. “We know which candidate in this election puts the American people first: our president, Joe Biden.”
‘Pass the Torch’
A group of Biden’s Democratic detractors are trying to reach him directly through a television advertisement.
The advertisement, created by the new group Pass the Torch, will start running on Monday on Morning Joe, one of Biden’s favourite shows which he is known to watch regularly, and other daytime MSNBC programming.
“We want to get this message – that we’re so grateful for all you’ve done, and now it’s seriously time to pass the torch – directly to President Biden,” said Aaron Regunberg, a member of Pass the Torch’s steering committee.
“We’ll be going up on his favourite programmes, and we plan to stay up until we hear the announcement that he’s going to do the right thing and step aside. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take it off the air in the very near future.”
Niambi Carter, an associate professor at the University of Maryland told Al Jazeera that the party would face serious challenges if Biden were to quit the race now.
“I think those who are calling for him to step down will have to get used to the idea and line up behind Joe Biden if he chooses to stay in the race,” she told Al Jazeera. “He is allowed to do so since he won the primary with little to no challenge.”
Carter said Democrats are in their own way seemingly lacking the willpower exhibited by Republican rivals to march ahead.
“The money the Biden campaign has made is not transferrable to a new candidate, so a lot of things need to happen very quickly if this is going to be the case, so I think it’s a really short-sighted move on behalf of the Democrats.”
White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said on Friday that the president still had a dry cough and hoarseness, but that his COVID-19 symptoms had improved.
Next week, Biden is scheduled to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will address the US Congress on July 24 amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
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