US President Joe Biden has announced that he will remain in the race for the presidency, saying he is convinced that the average voter will continue to see him on the Democratic ballot.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Biden told MSNBC after calling into the network’s Morning Joe program.
He called on anyone who wanted his resignation to “challenge” him at the Democratic National Convention in August.
The interview was another example of Biden’s attempt to recover from a shaky debate performance against Republican Donald Trump on June 27 that raised questions about his mental fitness.
Biden expressed frustration with what he called efforts by “elites” to push him out of the presidential race against Trump, whom he defeated in 2020. The election will take place on November 5.
When Mika Brzezinski, co-host of “Morning Joe,” listed the major news organizations and pundits who had called on him to resign, Biden brushed off the question.
“I don’t care what these big names think,” Biden said.
“The bottom line is, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere. I wouldn’t run if I wasn’t absolutely convinced that I’m the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
Biden had previously told his Democratic colleagues in Congress that he was “firmly committed” to his re-election campaign.
“I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am determined to stay in this race, see it through to the end, and beat Donald Trump,” Biden wrote to politicians as they returned to Washington DC after the July 4 break.
Biden wrote in the two-page letter that “the question of how to proceed has been discussed at length for over a week. And it is time to put an end to it.”
He stressed that the party has “only one task,” namely to defeat the likely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in November.
The Democrats face a tough fight if they want to defend their 51-49 majority in the US Senate. In several Republican-dominated states, incumbents are up for re-election. Some in the party see regaining the majority in the House of Representatives as their best chance to hold on to one of the levers of power in Washington DC should Trump regain the White House, which he lost to Biden in 2020.
Biden will continue to meet voters in churches, union halls and other locations in the coming days, administration officials said.
At the same time, he wanted to approach politicians he had known for decades to allay concerns, it was said.
with AP