President Biden He urged congressional Democrats to stop questioning whether they should end their re-election bids and “move forward as a unified party” to defeat former President Trump in the 2024 election.
And the president, in a letter sent to congressional Democrats on Monday upon returning from the July 4 holiday, reiterated that he is “firmly committed to staying in this race” and argued that any further questioning of his candidacy “will only help Trump and hurt us.”
After a disastrous performance in the first one-on-one debate with Trump a week and a half ago, the president is trying to prove he still has the stamina and the presence of mind to handle the world’s toughest and most demanding job. And he’s trying to prove he has the guts to beat Trump.
Discussion It was a major setback for Biden, who at 81 is the oldest president in the country’s history. His halting speech and faltering answers in the Atlanta contest sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and led to public and private demands from within his own party that he step down as the party’s flag-bearer for 2024.
Some top House Democrats urge Biden to step down
President Biden and former President Trump will debate on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (Getty Images)
But Biden emphasized in his letter, “I want to tell you that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I remain fully committed to staying in this race, to staying in this race until the end, and to defeating everyone in the race.” Donald Trump.”
The president highlighted the “extensive conversations” he’s had with party leaders, rank-and-file members and Democratic voters in recent days and said he has “heard people’s concerns.”
“I’m not blind to them,” he insisted.
Trump gains lead in post debate poll after Biden’s poor performance
But he stressed that “I would not be running for re-election if I did not fully believe that I am the best person to defeat Donald Trump in 2024.”
He also highlighted his landslide victory over some of his long-term rivals in the race for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
“Are we now saying that this process doesn’t matter? That voters have no role in it?”
Biden answered his own question by saying, “I refuse to do that.”
President Biden addresses a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Some House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to drop his re-election bid. And on Sunday, Fox News and other news organizations reported that four House Democrats who hold top positions on key committees said on a conference call with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., that the president needs to step down.
Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats led by Virginia Senator Mark Warner may meet on Tuesday to discuss the president’s political future.
But Biden argued in his letter that enough is enough.
Trump eyes expanding map amid Democratic turmoil after Biden debate
“The question of how to move forward has been in the news for the past week. It’s time to put an end to it. We have one job to do. And that’s to defeat Donald Trump,” Biden said.
The president argued that “any weakness in the resolve or lack of clarity about the work ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” Biden wrote. “It’s time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”
Some national polls conducted in the full aftermath of the debate and released last week showed multiple danger signs for the president — including Trump widening his single-digit lead over Biden and deepening Americans’ concerns about whether Biden is up to the task of running the country.
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But a Bloomberg-Morning Consult poll released over the weekend indicated that Biden was gaining on Trump in some key electoral states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Biden’s letter Congressional Democrats The letter was sent alongside a memo from his campaign highlighting the survey, his increasingly busy campaign travel schedule, and supportive comments from a variety of Democratic Party figures.
In addition, Biden has called nearly two dozen congressional Democrats directly, with more calls coming, a campaign source told Fox News.
Fox News’s Chad Pergram and Tyler Olson contributed to this report
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