White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre He expressed his desire on Tuesday to “turn the page” of doubts about Joe Biden's physical and mental ability to run for re-election. His thesis that disastrous debate last thursday on CNN it was just “a bad night” because of a cold, it doesn’t convince even his people and the noise is growing, with increasing pressure on him to reconsider whether he should continue in the presidential race. The president has intensified his agenda to combat this pressure and is aware that the coming days could be decisive.
According to The New York Times, Biden has acknowledged to a close ally, on condition of anonymity, that “he is considering whether to continue in the race,” according to the headline in the New York Times on Wednesday, information that was followed by a flat denial. “That statement is absolutely false. Yes The New York Times “If you had given us more than 7 minutes to comment, we would have told you,” he tweeted. a spokesperson. Subsequently, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre also denied the information at the daily press conference: “He remains in the race.” And the president himself made it clear in a call to his campaign staff: “I am in this race until the end.”
In reality, the New York headline seemed to go further than what was in the text. What the anonymous ally is saying is that if Biden continues committing mistakes such as those in the debate If he runs into Donald Trump a few more times this week, with incomplete sentences, hesitations and a lack of mental acuity, “he may not be able to save his candidacy.” The source assures the president that he remains determined to stay in the fight for re-election, but admits: “He knows that if he does two more of those things, we’ll be in a different place.” Sources cited by the AP also point out that the president has realized from those around him that the coming days will be decisive.
Biden has put on a better front in his post-debate public interventions than he did in person, but he has failed the test of teleprompter. At a meeting in Raleighhas resorted to it in his brief speech about the verdict granting broad immunity to his Republican rival and in other recent actions. The interview he will give to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Friday, and the press conference he will give next week on the occasion of the NATO summit in Washington will be used to measure If, in addition to reading text on screens, you can also weave a coherent speech without getting lost. In addition, the president has intensified his agenda with campaign events in Madison, Wisconsin, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, two decisive states.
If he doesn't say anything in the interview, or can't finish his sentences during the meetings or the press conference, the pressure on him will be irresistible, is what Biden's anonymous ally will acknowledge, which on the other hand is quite obvious. These are decisive actions for the future of your campaign. His performance in these interventions will serve to clarify what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described as a legitimate doubt about whether what happened in the debate is 'an episode or a condition'.
Karine Jean-Pierre had to face at Tuesday's press conference, the first in the White House since the debate to raise questions about whether Biden has Alzheimer's, dementia or another neurodegenerative disease. “No. And I hope they ask the other guy the same question,” he said. The New York Times, Meanwhile, he published that sources close to him say the errors Biden is suffering from appear to be more frequent, obvious and worrying. Such episodes are not predictable, but they seem more likely when you are in a large crowd or tired after a particularly grueling program, he added.
Knowing what is happening outside means understanding what will happen inside, don't miss anything.
This Wednesday, the bombardment was over whether the president was considering retirement and he actively and passively denied it, even as he acknowledged the importance of the next few days of the campaign. Jean-Pierre added a new element to the catalogue of excuses that already included a cold, a sore throat and fatigue: jet lag, despite the fact that he had spent almost a week resting and preparing at Camp David (Maryland). The day before, Biden himself had joked at a campaign event: “I almost fell asleep on stage.”
At the same time, Biden made a surprise appearance on Wednesday at a Democratic National Committee call to campaign staff alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. Both reiterated to staff that they are running for re-election together. “I'm introducing myself. I'm the leader of the Democratic Party. 'Nobody's going to kick me out,' Biden said. “We're going to win, because when Democrats unite, we always win,” he added, concluding: “I'm going to stay in the race until the end.”
The Democrats have found themselves in an internal crisis where, for the time being, few dissenting voices are coming forward in public, but there are those who are privately expressing doubts. This Wednesday, the president will meet with Democratic governors at the White House behind closed doors to dispel doubts. He has already spoken to congressional leaders.
Doubts about Biden are eating away at Democrats. On the one hand, it is clear to them that he is not in top form. On the other hand, there is no clear alternative. Biden finds three types of arguments in the polls not to throw in the towel: his voting intention has not suffered much from the debate, the majority of Democratic voters want him to continue, and viable alternatives would not have a better result against Donald Trump. Perhaps the exception is a study of NYT in which this outlet says that the gap between Trump and Biden increased by three points after the debate, from 3 to 6 among likely voters and from 6 to 9 among registered voters.
At an event with donors to a political action committee, a prominent Democratic election consultant, Dmitri Mehlhorn, stressed that the most obvious alternative, Vice President Kamala Harris, might not be very effective. “Kamala Harris is more threatening to those undecided voters than a dead or comatose Joe Biden,” he said, according to a recording that you have had access to Semaphore. “So if Joe has to go, it will be Kamala and if it is Kamala, it will be more difficult,” he added.
“72% of people want something different. “Why don’t we give it to him?” James Carville, a former aide to Bill Clinton, asked in a conference call to dozens of donors to the Democratic organization American Bridge, according to the same outlet. “They’re just asking for another option.”
Michelle Obama's Option
The majority of voters believe Biden should withdraw from the re-election race. but the majority of Democrats still support him. One in three party voters thinks he should end his candidacy, but no prominent elected democrat he would come out better than Biden in a hypothetical showdown with former President Trump in the November 5 election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey closed on tuesdays.
Among the names of prominent Democrats presented to respondents, only Michelle Obama, wife of former Democratic President Barack Obama, He outpolled Biden and led Trump 50% to 39% in a hypothetical showdown. Michelle Obama has repeatedly said she has no intention of running for president. Her husband has publicly supported Biden, although he has privately expressed concerns about the campaign as well as his support.
For example, the vice president led Trump by one percentage point, 42% to 43%, a difference that was within the poll’s 3.5 percentage point margin of error, making Harris’s result statistically similar. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a rising Democratic star who many observers predict could run for president in future elections, fared slightly worse, with 39% to Trump’s 42%.
About 70% of Democrats in the survey said they had never heard of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who some Democratic donors consider a strong candidate to lead his heavily Republican state after his victories. The fact that Beshear, a relative unknown, trailed Trump only narrowly in the Reuters/Ipsos poll (36% to 40%) illustrates the extent to which Democrats are opposed to the former president and are willing to vote for either of his candidates.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer trailed Trump 36% to 41%, while Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker had 34% support to Trump's 40% in an online poll of 1,070 U.S. adults from across the country.
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