“Donald Trump’s bleak vision for the future does not represent who we are as Americans,” Joe Biden said Friday, July 19. “Together, as a party and as a country, we can and will beat him at the ballot box,” the American president continued in a statement. A candidate for re-election in November, Joe Biden has been defiant in saying he will resume his campaign, paused because of Covid, next week, but has failed to silence voices urging the 81-year-old president-candidate to pass the torch.
Mr. Biden, who is in isolation at his private beachfront residence in Delaware on the East Coast, has “improved” his symptoms, his doctor said. And the president said he was looking forward to returning to the campaign “next week.” But his combative tone does not mask the growing anger among Democratic officials.
More than 30 elected officials have publicly called on him to quit the race.
A dozen members of the House of Representatives and a fourth senator joined the cohort on Friday and called on the president, who is seeking a second term against Republican Donald Trump, to make way for a younger candidate.
In all, more than 30 elected officials have publicly asked him to leave the race. And one of his major donors, businessman Michael Moritz, called on him to step down and announced that he was suspending his donations to the party. “Unfortunately, President Biden must make a choice: vanity or virtue,” he said, as quoted by the New York Times.
“We must face the reality that widespread public concern about your age and fitness is jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign,” four representatives, including Texas Rep. Marc Veasey, said in a joint letter. “Passing the torch […] would reinvigorate the race and inject enthusiasm and momentum into Democrats ahead of our convention next month,” they said.
The fever within the Democratic Party has been palpable since the head of state faltered during his debate with Mr. Trump at the end of June. That day, it was a very weakened Biden, struggling to finish his sentences, who appeared in front of the screens of his distressed supporters. The whirlwind of questions about his mental acuity has not ceased since, even if the president claims to be in full possession of his intellectual capacities and to be the most capable of beating Donald Trump.
In recent days, a number of anonymous leaks to the media have suggested that Mr. Biden may be changing his mindset, becoming more receptive to concerns. In what appears to be a major development, former President Barack Obama, still very influential within the party, has reportedly expressed doubts about the “viability” of Joe Biden’s candidacy.
Striking contrast between the two candidates
The president’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, responded Friday on MSNBC: Mr. Biden “is running to win, he is our nominee and he is going to be our president for a second term.” He is “absolutely” in the race for the White House, she insisted, while acknowledging that the last few weeks have been “tough.”
Other voices have expressed concern about calls for Mr Biden to step down. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a figure on the left wing of the party, warned against rushing into things, saying she had not “seen an alternative scenario that I think does not expose us to enormous peril”.
A series of polls show Mr Biden trailing Mr Trump, whom he beat in 2020. The contrast between the two rivals is currently stark and reflects the twists and turns of a campaign like no other.
While Mr. Biden faces a crisis, Mr. Trump seems to be enjoying a state of grace, having spent the past few months in court — becoming the first former president to be convicted of a criminal offense. Last Saturday, he miraculously survived an assassination attempt. And Thursday night, he was anointed the right’s nominee at a lavish party.