President Biden on Friday said he won’t consider standing down from his campaign for a second term in the White House despite growing pressure from him to do so from Democratic members of Congress and donors to his party.
Biden told reporters traveling with him in Wisconsin he was “completely ruling that out” during a brief exchange with the press after he finished taping an interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopolous.
Pressed on why he still thinks he is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump despite his dismal showing against his predecessor in last week’s CNN presidential debate, Biden replied: “I did it before,” referring to his 2020 election victory over the twice-impeached, felonious former chief executive.
When it was pointed out that four years had passed since he defeated Trump — during which he has aged four years and has reportedly had numerous memory lapses and other moments that have caused observers to question his fitness for office — Biden struck a defiant tone, telling the reporters: “You’ve been wrong about everything.”
The president’s comments to reporters came just hours after he told a raucous crowd in Madison, the Badger State’s capital, that he was staying in the race even as a growing number of donors and down-ballot officeholders are questioning whether he can recover from the embarrassing showing he had last week, when he turned in a rambling, meandering and disturbing performance against Trump by frequently losing his train of thought and failing to rebut the ex-president’s frequent lies about him and his record.
As the rally crowd chanted “four more years” and “let’s go, Joe,” he told them he is his party’s nominee in this year’s presidential election because of “millions of Democrats like you” who voted for him “in primaries all across America.”
“The voters did that, and despite that, some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for … they’re trying to push me out of the race,” he said.
“Let me say as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump,” he said. “I beat him in 2020 … and by the way, we’re going to do it again in 2024!”
Continuing, Biden said he would not permit “one 90-minute debate” to “wipe out three and a half years of work,” and touted his accomplishments as president, including creating “15 million new jobs” and reducing student debt for “nearly five million Americans” while putting the first Black woman on the US Supreme Court.