Jill Biden heads to three key battleground states on Monday to campaign for her husband as more Democrats publicly call on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
The first lady will attend campaign events in North Carolina, Florida and Georgia, all states where Biden’s re-election campaign is still aiming for a victory in November, despite a wave of calls for him to resign.
During his trip, he will formally launch the Veterans and Military Families for Biden campaign.
His trip comes at a time when Biden’s position in the Democratic ticket is at a tipping point. He, encouraged by his wife and other members of his family, believes he can turn things around. But members of his party fear the situation could get worse.
Jill Biden has been adamant that Joe Biden should stay in the race.
But he has also yet to respond to media questions about his condition or address questions about whether he worked with staff to hide it from the public.
Jill Biden heads to three key states on Monday to campaign for her husband as more Democrats publicly call on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race
She has been supportive. She stood by Biden’s side in Pennsylvania on Sunday as he tries to allay concerns about his mental health and physical fitness.
But while they were campaigning, House Democrats held a crisis call in which at least five more of them called on Joe Biden to drop out of the race.
Democrats are concerned that in addition to Republican Donald Trump winning the presidency, the GOP could also win both houses of Congress, leaving Trump’s presidential power unchecked.
Yet throughout the crisis, Jill Biden has been her husband’s staunchest defender.
“We are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years you have been president,” he told him after the debate.
She has also taken charge of launching the Biden campaign’s most important electoral initiatives, including Women for Biden and Seniors for Biden.
On Monday, she added veterans and military families to her list. Jill Biden is the daughter of a World War II veteran, and the Bidens’ late son, Beau, served in Iraq.
As first lady, she has promoted her Joining Forces initiative to support military families. She often speaks about the Bidens’ ties to the military.
Jill helps her husband Joe Biden off the CNN debate stage after their debate in which Trump was involved in a car crash that sparked calls for him to resign.
Both she and President Biden have criticized Donald Trump for his comments about veterans, particularly a report in which he called them “suckers” and “losers.” Trump has denied those comments.
Her tour on Monday will take her to three states with large populations of veterans and military families.
Their first stop of the day is Wilmington, North Carolina, a key state for both candidates’ plans to win. Trump leads there by six points in the polls, according to Five Thirty Eight’s polling average for the state.
Jill Biden then heads to Tampa, Florida. The president’s re-election campaign has argued that the state is in play this year, even though Trump has carried it in previous elections.
Her last stop of the day is Georgia. The first lady’s arrival in the state is the most important event since the debate two weeks ago, in which Joe Biden struggled to find the words and faltered in his responses to Trump.
Jill has yet to answer media questions about her condition or address questions about whether she worked with staff to hide it from the public.
Jill has been supportive. She stood alongside Biden at a fundraiser in New York on Saturday after the debate (pictured) and in Pennsylvania on Sunday, as she tries to allay concerns about her mental health and fitness.
Trump leads Georgia by nearly six points, according to Five Thirty Eight’s polling average in the state. Biden won the state in 2020, the first Democrat to win it since Bill Clinton.
Both candidates want to win in November.
The Biden campaign is struggling to recover in the nearly two weeks since the debate.
President Biden, in an attempt to demonstrate his mental prowess, conducted two interviews with black radio stations in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Only later was it revealed that the campaign had given the hosts the questions in advance. And the Philadelphia station fired its host in response to the news.
Biden then sat down with ABC News to try to calm the storm.
But Democrats’ concerns continue to grow, with more and more voices joining those calling for Biden to resign.
Donors are also panicking. And a senior administration official told the New York Times that Biden is not capable of doing the job.
The family, however, has decided to do nothing.
Jill Biden and Hunter Biden are now acting as the president’s gatekeepers. He has also stepped up his efforts, telling ABC News that only an act of God could get him to drop out of the race.
The president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, is also a supporter. Owens ran Joe Biden’s first Senate campaign and has been involved in each of his campaigns since. She is his senior political adviser.
Jill, Hunter and Valerie are the three most important people in any decision Joe Biden makes about his future.
He is the one who listens to them the most. They would have to give him his blessing to abandon the presidential race.
They show no signs of doing so.
The Biden clan gathered at Camp David last weekend for a pre-planned photo shoot with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. But the main topic of conversation was Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump.
Both she and President Biden have criticized Donald Trump for his comments about veterans, particularly a report in which he called them “suckers” and “losers.” Trump has denied those comments.
The whole family urged Bien to continue in the race.
Jill Biden, in particular, highlights everything the family has had to endure during Joe Biden’s time in the White House.
He singled out Hunter Biden’s prosecutor, NBC News reported, saying he could go to prison. Hunter’s family, and even some Republicans, viewed the prosecution of him for a 2018 gun purchase as too far-fetched.
Jill Biden argued that now was the time to fight.
There’s another reason the Bidens are holding firm. The family, particularly Jill Biden, remembers how Joe Biden was forced to drop out of the 1988 presidential race following a plagiarism scandal.
“In 1987, she saw the press, the pundits and the polls force him to resign, and it was a really traumatic experience for both of them,” Michael LaRosa, the first lady’s former press secretary, told the New York Times.
He said he had discussed the 1988 episode several times with the first lady when he worked for her.
“I think they learned from that experience and weren’t going to allow themselves to be forced into doing something like they did in 1987.”