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HAGERSTOWN, Maryland: US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden step off Air Force One upon arrival at Hagerstown Regional Airport enroute to Camp David on June 29, 2024. - AFP
HAGERSTOWN, Maryland: US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden step off Air Force One upon arrival at Hagerstown Regional Airport enroute to Camp David on June 29, 2024. - AFP

Dems close ranks around Biden

US president hits fundraising trail in show of strength after debate debacle

WASHINGTON: Democratic leaders rallied Sunday behind US President Joe Biden following his poor debate performance last week, as the White House denied a report he was meeting with family to assess his candidacy. After days of hand-wringing about Biden and the outcome of the Nov 5 election, Democrat leaders firmly rejected calls for their party to choose a younger presidential candidate.

No major party figures have broken ranks to call for Biden to step down, with prominent Democrats including past presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton voicing full-throated support amid a torrent of doubts from everyday Americans — and even a call from the New York Times editorial board to move aside.

The wave of party backing follows the 81-year-old’s stumbling performance Thursday in the debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump, in which Biden often hesitated, tripped over words and lost his train of thought, highlighting concerns about his age. “It’s not about performance in terms of a debate, it’s about performance in a presidency,” Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

On “one side of the screen, you have integrity, the other side you have dishonesty,” she said, echoing a number of party figures attempting to shift the focus from what they say was Biden’s unfortunate performance to the barrage of lies that came from Donald Trump during the debate. According to a CBS News poll conducted in the two days following the debate, nearly three-quarters of registered voters now believe Biden should not be running for president, including 46 percent of Democrats.

Biden and his family traveled to the Camp David presidential retreat late Saturday, where NBC News reported he was expected to assess the future of his reelection campaign following his performance. White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, however, posted on X that the trip had been planned since before the debate, questioning the publication and claiming it had failed to ask for comment on the matter.

The Biden campaign has meanwhile reported that it has raised $33 million since the debate, including $26 million from grassroots donors. Biden should “absolutely not” drop out of the race, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “It’s our assignment to make sure that he gets over the finish line come November. Not for his sake but the country’s sake.”

“The unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said in an editorial on Sunday.

“The shade of retirement is now necessary for President Biden.” The Washington Post’s editorial board meanwhile urged him to do some soul-searching over the weekend after his “calamitous” debate performance raised “legitimate questions about whether he’s up for another four years in the world’s toughest job.”

House of Representatives Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who could become speaker next year if his party can take control of the House in November, acknowledged that Biden suffered a setback in his debate with Trump. “I believe a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback,” he told MSNBC. “So the moment that we’re in right now is a comeback moment, and it’s going to require all of us to lean in, articulate a forward-looking message as to why the Democratic platform is best equipped to deal with the challenges facing the American people.”

Another top House Democrat, Representative James Clyburn, agreed. “He should stay in this race. He should demonstrate it going forward his capacity to lead the country,” he told CNN. Republicans blasted Democratic claims that Biden’s poor debate performance was a one-off. “This idea that Biden had a bad night, that’s not the story. He’s had a bad presidency, had a disastrous debate,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told CNN.

But in his own debate performance, Trump unleashed a barrage of criticisms, many of which were well-worn falsehoods he has long repeated, including claims that migrants have carried out a crime wave, that Democrats support infanticide and that he actually won the 2020 election.

On Friday, Biden attempted to tamp down the naysaying with a fiery campaign speech in North Carolina in which he pledged to keep fighting. He appeared alongside his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, who has fiercely defended her husband amid calls for him to step aside. “On that campaign stage in North Carolina, I saw a forceful, engaged and capable Joe Biden,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons, from Biden’s home state of Delaware, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I think it was a weak debate performance by President Biden,” Coons said, adding that nonetheless “side by side, Donald Trump had a horrifying debate performance where, yes, he spoke plainly, but what he said was lie after lie after lie.” Biden, he added, is “the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.”

Biden attended a triple-header of campaign fundraisers Saturday, seeking to reassure high-dollar donors he can still win reelection in November despite a debate performance that sparked panic among many Democrats. Jill Biden accompanied him at the fundraisers in New York and New Jersey. “Joe isn’t just the right person for the job – he’s the only person for the job,” she told one gathering, which featured a-list actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick among the co-hosts. – Agencies

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