Faced with mounting pressure to step aside, President Joe Biden dramatically released a letter to Democrats telling them he is “firmly committed” to staying in the race to retain the White House.
Biden issued the letter just as lawmakers return from a July 4 recess, where he has faced growing calls to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump and a string of poor polling data showing he is in danger of losing.
In it, Biden, 81, attacks the press, donors and party leaders who have said the party’s only chance is to jettison it.
‘Now that you’re back from the July 4 recess, I want you to know that, despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the finish, and to beating Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden, 81, told Democrats he was “the best person to defeat Donald Trump” as he faces mounting pressure to step back
“I would not run again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to defeat Donald Trump in 2024,” Biden wrote, days after his interview with ABC News failed to calm critics.
He then highlighted his primary victories. “We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters spoke clearly and decisively,” he wrote. “I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast during the entire nomination process.”
His language also suggests he has his cards in hand ahead of the party’s convention in Chicago next month.
“I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me our party’s presumptive nominee by a wide margin,” he wrote.
He also described a primary process in which better-known challengers dropped out, leaving him with token opposition from Reps. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Marianne Williamson.
President Joe Biden has written to House Democrats after a handful of elected lawmakers urged him to end his campaign.
Biden has been taking steps to rally grassroots voters as pundits and some elected lawmakers call for him to leave.
Biden’s letter comes as elected Democrats have urged him to step down
“Only three people decided to challenge me. One did so poorly that he dropped out of the primary to run as an independent,” he said, referring to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated,” he said of Phillips. “The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the party’s nominee.”
Biden remains in jeopardy this week as lawmakers return to DC and leaders meet amid the crisis in his campaign.
In the days leading up to the extraordinary letter from his party’s presumptive nominee, Reps. Angie Craic (Minnesota), Seth Moulton (Massachusetts), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Raul Grijalva (Arizona) and Mike Quigley (Illinois) all called for Biden to go.
His faltering performance in the debates and failure to clean up the mess in subsequent days, even as he held campaign rallies and gave interviews, has exposed the party’s fractures. Some pundits are once again looking at Vice President Kamala Harris as a possible standard-bearer, and a former Barack Obama aide wrote an article rehearsal calling it the only viable alternative and saying it would be “insulting” to leave it aside.
Other party members have called on Biden to step back to allow a swing-state governor or another Democratic elected with less political baggage to take on Trump, who is leading Biden in national polls and in key states.
Biden’s letter suggested Democrats would pay a price if they left him aside. “Are we now saying this process didn’t matter? That voters have no say?” he asked.
He said his decision was based on a “deep obligation” to rely on the faith and trust of voters, even though opinion polls show a large majority consider him too old for another term.
“It was their decision, not the press, the pundits, the big donors, or any select group of individuals, no matter how good their intentions.”
He then linked his decision to his democratic-themed campaign to take on Trump.
“How can we defend democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party?” he asked. “I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”
His letter comes in a week when Biden will once again be forced to prove his worth, this time by hosting world leaders at a NATO summit in DC. He has also scheduled a press conference, after drawing criticism for letting his staff decide which journalists he will call and limiting such engagements to just a few questions.
His printed letter also lays out many of the same arguments against Trump that he failed to muster during his debate or meeting with George Stephanopoulos, attacking Trump on tax cuts, trickle-down economics, health care and his standoff with “Big Pharma.”
During the debate, he awkwardly said he had “beaten Medicare,” prompting his staff to explain the fact.
He ended his letter by mentioning some of the fears raised by his allies about taking any radical new course, despite the hole Biden finds himself in. “Any weakening of our resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” he wrote.
The letter comes as his campaign says Biden has called 20 Democratic lawmakers amid the pressure campaign against him.
Biden punctuated his letter by calling out MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” a platform Trump used to his advantage in 2016.
“We’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere,” Biden insisted.
He mocked Trump for playing golf and using a cart, while “I’ve been all over the country.”
He dismissed the polls. “We’re starting to focus on Trump,” he said. He mocked Trump for talking to his “rich friends” at Mar-a-Lago and keeping a low profile after the debate.
“The president and the first lady were talking at a campaign party over ice cream,” Biden said, correcting himself as he reviewed the week’s events.
Biden also defended his cognition.
“I had a physical exam, and also a neurological exam in February,” he said. “I have a neurological exam every day.”
And he dismissed a long list of detractors that co-host Mika Brzezinski read out by name. “I don’t care what those big names think,” he said.
Biden was blunt in his remarks, uttering some of his signature exclamations like “give me a break!”
But he also acknowledged during the phone interview that he had notes in front of him, and a microphone picked up what sounded like a piece of paper being turned over. “I’m reading a list of lies,” Biden said.