President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris joined a Democratic National Committee call on Wednesday and pledged that he would stay in the race.
“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can, as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running . . . no one’s pushing me out,” Biden told staffers, according to Politico. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”
Biden’s declaration that he will not leave the Democratic ticket comes as his campaign is scrambling to retain support among lawmakers in his party. While Representative Lloyd Doggett (D., Texas) is the only elected Democrat to call for the president to end his re-election bid by this point, others have made their concerns known.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC Tuesday that Biden’s debate performance presents “a legitimate question” about his ability to continue as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) told a local news station on Monday that he was “pretty horrified” by Biden’s condition during the debate and urged the president and his staff “to be candid” about Biden’s state.
Recent polling from Democratic date firm OpenLabs shows Biden falling far behind Trump in several battleground states. Others not thought to be swing states in 2024, like New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Virginia, are now in play according to that poll, which was leaked to Puck News on Tuesday.
That same survey has Harris, California governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg outpeforming the president in multiple swing states.
Numerous newspapers and magazines have argued that Biden should not be the Democratic nominee in 2024, a decision that the president would have to make himself.
The editorial board of the New York Times wrote last Friday that Biden, “not the man he was four years ago,” should leave the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an unsigned editorial on Saturday exhorting the president to step aside “for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, echoing the sentiments expressed in the DNC call, said Biden was “absolutely not” considering an end to his re-election bid during a Wednesday press conference.