President Biden has told his fellow Democrats that it is time to put up or shut up, daring those who want to replace him as the party’s White House nominee to challenge him at next month’s convention.
In a series of combative moves on Monday Biden, 81, told congressional colleagues on their first day back in Washington after the Independence Day recess that he would not quit the race.
He threw down the gauntlet to the “elites” in his party who are calling on him to step aside after his woeful performance in the first presidential debate against Donald Trump, 78, the presumptive Republican nominee, on June 27, and a tepid interview on Friday with ABC News.
“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites in the party, they know so much more,” he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme. “But if any of these guys don’t think I should run, run against me — announce for president, challenge me at the convention.”
He talked about how the polls were wrong about a hard-right victory in France and were also wrong about a Republican “red wave” in the US during the midterms in 2022, as he refused to quit his campaign for a second term. “I am not letting up,” he said. “I am not letting up one little bit.”
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Separately, in a formal letter to Democrats in Congress he urged the party to avoid an internecine war over his candidacy and stressed that their job was to unite against Trump.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now,” he wrote. “And it’s time for it to end.” He stressed that the party had “one job”, which was to defeat Trump in November.
“We have 42 days to the Democratic convention [in Chicago on August 19-22] and 119 days to the general election [on November 5],” he added. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”
Biden also questioned whether those calling on him to quit risked undermining the democratic process, after he swept to victory in primaries held earlier this year. No significant Democratic figure challenged him, he pointed out. “How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party?” he wrote. “I cannot do that. I will not do that.”
Senior party figures have called on the attacks against Biden to stop, but several members of Congress have ignored calls for unity and demanded that Biden make way for a younger candidate, with some favouring the vice-president, Kamala Harris.
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Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives, hosted a call with members of Congress on Sunday. Jerry Nadler, Mark Takano, Joe Morelle and Adam Smith were all reported to have said during the meeting that Biden should relinquish the party nomination.
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Congressman breaks ranks
On Monday afternoon Smith, the top Democrat on the House armed services committee, went public with his concerns, saying: “The president’s performance in the debate was alarming to watch and the American people have made it clear they no longer see him as a credible candidate to serve four more years as president. Since the debate the president has not seriously addressed these concerns.”
He added that Biden should drop out “as soon as possible” but stressed that he would back him “without reservation” if he decided to press ahead with the campaign.
In an interview later with CNN, Smith added that Biden was “not the best person to carry the Democratic message”.
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Late on Monday, however, Jeffries told reporters that he supported Biden’s candidacy, while on Tuesday Nadler said: “As the president said, 90 per cent of Democrats voted for him in the primaries, he won the nomination and that’s an end of the matter.”
What the polls say
Biden told Morning Joe that the “average voter” wanted him to stay in the race. However, a poll for Morning Consult showed that 60 per cent of voters thought he should “definitely” or “probably” be replaced as the Democratic candidate, while a YouGov survey for CBS News found that 72 per cent of voters thought he should be replaced.
“We’re having this debate in the open — that’s healthy for democracy,” said Joe Trippi, a longstanding Democratic strategist who led Howard Dean’s unsuccessful campaign to be the party’s nominee in 2004. “Look at the other party — there is not a serious word of protest against their candidate, despite him being a convicted felon. I’m sure that Biden will stand down if he genuinely believes he can’t beat Trump in November.”
But the fact that the campaign feels that it has to demand unity in the party, only four months before the general election, is remarkable.
Polls indicate that Trump has narrowly increased his lead since the debate, with FiveThirtyEight, which aggregates surveys, showing that he has a national lead over the president of 2.3 percentage points.
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The Biden campaign has also been forced to try and put out fresh fires, as leaks emerged that question the president’s mental fitness for office.
President given guide to walking on stage
In a revelation that will do little to shift attention away from Biden’s perceived frailty, his staff are reported to have started producing documents for him to navigate podiums during speaking engagements, complete with large photographs showing the exits to stages.
Those working at events, some of them fundraisers at private homes, say that his staff have behaved like they were planning “a Nato summit” in producing detailed documents showing him how to get to podiums. In one five-page document, revealed by the news service Axios, two pages had separate pictures underneath the title: “Walk to podium”.
Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and White House official in the Obama administration who describes himself as a “constructive critic” of the president, said the instructions were commonplace for presidents. “There may be some extra help for Biden, but it is not remarkable that there is this level of detail,” he said. “Advance teams are very thorough and even with Obama there was a lot of planning.”
White House sidesteps questions about Parkinson’s doctor
It has also emerged that a neurological doctor who specialises in Parkinson’s disease has met White House medical staff several times in recent years.
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According to White House visitor logs Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s expert at Walter Reed medical centre, met Kevin O’Connor, an osteopathic specialist who has treated the president for years. Cannard has visited the White House eight times since August 2023, most recently in late March.
Biden received a medical check-up in February, after which a public report said various experts examined the president and appeared to rule out the existence of Parkinson’s.
In several bad-tempered exchanges during the White House press briefing on Monday, Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s press secretary, sidestepped questions about whether Cannard’s visits to the White House specifically involved the president’s health, citing security reasons, which she did not expand on.
She said that his doctor had seen no reason to re-evaluate his neurological condition since his February examination. Jean-Pierre added it was “unfair” and said she took “offence” that she was accused of withholding information on the matter.
The White House last night released a letter written by O’Connor, in which he sought to explain the “background on why Dr Kevin Cannard visited the White House,” saying he had “obtained permission from the president and Cannard to confirm the details I am sharing”.
“Dr Cannard was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals. His findings have been made public each time … President Biden has not seen a neurologist outside of his annual physical. “Dr Cannard regularly visits the [White House Medical Unit] as part of this general neurology practice.”
Read Biden’s letter to congressional Democrats in full
