First lady Jill Biden is said to be “attacking” Democrats who want to remove President Joe Biden from the 2024 Democratic nomination following last week’s debate.
Although the president has said he has no plans to step down, he is known to speak to a large number of people but only listen to the opinions of a very closed circle, including that of his wife.
And Jill is said to have taken a dim view from those who wish to oust her husband from the ticket, as she is said to be the driving force behind his insistence on staying in the race. The claim was made by ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz moments after Biden’s make-or-break interview with the network on Friday night.
The “inner circle” of voices that includes a select circle of advisers, including his son, Hunter, are telling Biden, 81, that he can win and should press ahead with his re-election bid.
Last weekend, the Bidens slipped away for a post-debate briefing and a reportedly pre-planned photo shoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz at Camp David.
First lady Jill Biden is now said to be “attacking” Democrats who want to remove President Joe Biden from the 2024 Democratic nomination following last week’s debate.
It was from the presidential cabins that Jill made a phone call to Vogue magazine, providing a last-minute update for her cover interview, which is set to be published on Monday.
“We will not let those 90 minutes define Joe’s four years as president. We will continue to fight,” Jill, 73, told Vogue.
“The only person who has the most influence over him is the first lady,” a source said earlier this week. “If she decides there needs to be a change of direction, there will be a change of direction.”
“The decision-makers are two people: the president and his wife,” the source added. “Anyone who doesn’t understand how deeply personal and familial this decision will be is not informed about the situation.”
Biden’s top advisers have also told their staff to hold firm in meetings, conveying the mission statement: “We will weather the storm, just like we always have,” according to a senior administration official.
The “inner circle” of voices that includes a select circle of advisers, including his son, Hunter, are telling Biden, 81, that he can win and needs to press ahead with his re-election bid.
The president made his own attempt to get his re-election campaign back on track in a taped interview that lasted just 22 minutes in which Biden He insisted that his dire poll numbers were not real and that the Democratic Party has no concerns about his suitability to lead.
Biden said the only way he would drop out of the race would be “if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me.”
Friday night’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos was intended as damage control, but it has only further angered Democratic politicians and big donors who, since the calamitous debate with Trump, have pushed for the president to step aside.
Biden blamed “exhaustion” and being “sick” for his poor debate performance, which has thrown his entire re-election campaign into disarray.
But there is a movement afoot within the party to persuade him to step aside, with critics warning that he faces almost certain defeat and could drag other Democrats down with him.
A handful of Democrats have publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race, while there is a movement in the Senate, led by Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, for upper chamber Democrats to make the effort as well.
While the president has said he has no plans to step aside, he is known to speak to a large number of people but only listens to the opinions of a very closed circle, including those of his wife.
House Democrats and a group of senators are expected to meet on the issue when they return to Washington next week.
A handful of Democrats have publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race, while there is a movement in the Senate – led by Virginia Sen. Mark Warner – for Democrats in the upper chamber to make the effort as well.
Warner, a well-respected moderate Democrat, is inviting Democratic senators to a meeting on Monday to discuss Biden’s campaign, a source told Reuters.
The Washington Post reported that Warner was seeking to ask the group to pressure Biden to drop out of the race.
Biden told reporters he had spoken to at least 20 lawmakers and that they were telling him to stay. Asked about Warner’s request for him to leave, Biden said, “Well, Mark Warner, as I understand it, is the only one who is considering it.”
Biden has been resistant to such efforts, saying in an impassioned speech in Madison on Friday: “I’m staying in the race.”
Some public opinion polls have shown Trump widening his lead since the debate, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll found one in three Democrats want Biden to drop out of the race.
Biden rejected the move on Friday.
“We had a little debate last week. I can’t say it was my best performance, but there’s been a lot of speculation since then. ‘What is Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out?’” Biden said. “Well, here’s my answer: I’m going to run and I’m going to win again.”
But in the same vein, he added that he was ready to beat Trump “again in 2020.”
And then, when Stephanopoulos asked the 81-year-old if he watched the debate afterward, Biden indicated he wasn’t sure.
“I don’t think he did, no,” the president replied.
The Clinton team member turned ABC News anchor then pressed Biden in real time on whether he knew he was bombing.
In the short clip, he also appears to have said he had received more medical attention than press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre initially told reporters.
“In fact, the doctors were with me. I asked them if they had tested me for COVID because they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me. They tested me to see whether or not I had some infection, you know, a virus. I didn’t. I just had a really bad cold,” Biden said.
A tanned Joe Biden made a bizarre claim about inventing a computer chip during his pivotal Friday interview
Biden spoke to Stephanopoulos in a voice reminiscent of the weak, husky tone from their debate, after asking him if he had even watched it again, saying, “I don’t know why” he had such a bad performance.
He insisted that he is no longer fragile and that he is “still in good shape.” He said that his personal doctors are constantly evaluating him and that they “don’t hesitate to tell me” if something is wrong.
During the interview, Biden said he is “continuously evaluated” by his personal doctors and that they “don’t hesitate to tell me” if something is wrong.
“Can I run 100 meters in 10 seconds? No, but I’m still in good shape,” Biden said.