WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is fighting for his endangered re-election on Friday, holding a rally and giving a television interview in a crucial swing state. Every answer he gives is sure to be scrutinized for his competence and suitability for the office.
This could be a turning point for Biden, who is under pressure to withdraw from the campaign after his disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump sparked concerns that the 81-year-old Democrat is unfit for another four years in office.
The interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, recorded after a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, is expected to be intense and visceral, and two people familiar with the president’s efforts said he had prepared extensively for it. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
There was widespread agreement that Biden cannot afford another “bad day,” as he himself put it about his debate flop. It was not clear whether even a mediocre performance would be enough to allay concerns about his fitness for the office.
The White House itself raised the stakes for Biden’s interview, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying it expected “millions of Americans” to watch the interview.
While private angst runs high among Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists after Biden’s damaging debate performance, most in the party are holding back their criticism in public and waiting to see if the president can restore some confidence with his weekend travel schedule and his handling of the Stephanopoulos interview, which will air in full on ABC Friday night.
But at least three Democrats in the House have called on Biden to withdraw as a candidate. Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts voiced his concerns in a radio interview Thursday, joining Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona in also seeking an alternative.
“President Biden has done tremendous service to our country, but now it is time for him to follow in the footsteps of one of our Founding Fathers, George Washington, and step aside to make way for new leaders to take on Donald Trump,” Moulton told radio station WBUR on Thursday.
Many other Democratic lawmakers hearing from their constituents at home during the holiday week are split on whether Biden should stay or go. Lawmakers are deeply frustrated with his campaign’s response to the crisis. Private debates flared among House Democrats this week as word spread that some of them were writing public letters urging the president to drop out of the race.
But opposition from other Democrats in the House was fierce, and none of the allegedly discussed letters from Democrats seeking re-election or running in easier races were ever made public.
“Any ‘leader’ who signs a letter calling on President Biden to resign needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida), an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Biden appears to have drawn his family and inner circle closer to him while trying to prove that he is still the Democrats’ best option for the November election.
Hunter Biden’s ubiquitous presence in the West Wing since the debate has become an uncomfortable energetic for many aides, say two Democrats close to the White House who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
For many of our staff, the sight of Hunter Biden taking on a larger role in advising his father just weeks after his conviction on a gun charge was disturbing and a questionable choice for this essential moment, they said.
Biden’s re-election campaign is moving ahead with aggressive plans despite the uncertainty, coupling Biden’s in-person events this month with a novel $50 million advertising campaign targeting high-rating moments such as the Summer Olympics in Paris starting July 26.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are scheduled to travel to all swing states this month. As part of a novel $17 million campaign, organizers plan to knock on more than three million doors in July and August to speak to voters in person.
Biden himself is scheduled to campaign in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Biden was originally scheduled to speak to the National Education Association in Philadelphia on Sunday, but the campaign canceled plans after the group announced a strike on Friday. The president will not break a picket line, the campaign said. He will still be in Pennsylvania this weekend. Biden will also travel to southwestern states, including Nevada, after hosting the NATO summit in Washington next week, the campaign said Friday. He will also continue to focus his travel on the so-called “blue wall” states – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan – that have been key to him in the past.
In a strategy memo released Friday morning, the campaign team also explicitly emphasized that Biden would “frequently participate in spontaneous moments” – once a hallmark of the gregarious, affable politician’s career, however, these moments have become increasingly occasional over the course of his presidency.
Every moment is crucial for Biden to restore the trust lost by his shaky performance in Atlanta last week, but the president has repeatedly made slip-ups that have not helped that effort.
In an interview with Philadelphia radio station WURD that aired Thursday, Biden slipped up and said, “I’m proud, as I said, to be the first female vice president, the first black woman to serve under a black president” — mixing up some of his oft-used phrases about his pride in serving under the first black president and selecting the first black woman as vice president.
Such verbal slip-ups are nothing unusual for Biden, but they attract increased attention in this environment.
At a hastily organized meeting with more than 20 Democratic governors on Wednesday night, Biden acknowledged that he needed more sleep and to limit evening events so he would be rested for office, according to three people granted anonymity to speak about the private meeting. California Governor Gavin Newsom later told reporters in Holland, Michigan, that Biden’s remark about limiting events after 8 p.m. was a joke, noting that he said it “with a smile on my face.”
Trying to explain these comments, Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden “works around the clock” but that he “also recognizes the importance of finding a balance and taking care of yourself.”
Still, Newsom said no one in the room “sugarcoated” the reality of last week’s debate.
“They saw the physiology. They saw everything. It was the breathing, it was the physical, the whole thing,” Newsom said at a subsequent event in Holland.
He said Biden had asked all governors for advice and told the president to focus more on discussing the future.
There are signs that key groups are already staking out their positions on who should succeed Biden as the Democratic candidate.
Glynda C. Carr, executive director of the Higher Heights for America PAC, which supports black women candidates, said Harris should lead the nominee if Biden withdraws, saying anyone else would be “another example of the continued disregard for black women’s leadership in the national debate.”
“To be clear, Vice President Harris should not appear on any list of potential successors – Kamala Harris is the only successor,” Carr said.
Biden is expected to employ his rally in Madison to go through his key arguments for his fight against Trump, with his campaign saying he will address safeguarding democracy, the economy and “our rights and freedoms.”
Wisconsin officials, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and state party chairman Ben Wikler, will deliver speeches. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is running for re-election in one of the crucial races for control of the Senate this year, will be elsewhere.
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Saugatuck, Michigan, and Aamer Madhani, Lisa Mascaro and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
