politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced Tuesday that President Joe Biden will meet with Democratic lawmakers and governors, follow up on a television interview and hold a news conference in the approaching days, warding off growing pressure to drop out of the 2024 presidential race following his disastrous performance in last week's debate with Republican Donald Trump.
“We really want to put an end to this,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said amid growing calls for Biden to drop out of the race. She added that the 81-year-old president had no intention of withdrawing and described his debate defeats as merely evidence of “a bad night” when he had a chilly.
The White House also held a full staff meeting on Wednesday to spice up morale after the talk and provides the leadership team a probability to focus staff on governing, in keeping with three people aware of the small print who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity about a non-public meeting.
But Democratic leaders increasingly signaled that they didn’t accept the White House's attempts to dismiss Biden's appearance at the talk, through which he gave hesitant and nonsensical answers, as a mere transient blip.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC that she thought it was “a legitimate question” whether Biden's sluggish performance was merely “an episode or a condition.”
“If people are asking that question, it’s a legitimate question – of both candidates,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi said she had not spoken to Biden because the debate, but stressed that the president was “at his best in terms of knowing the issues and what's at stake.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas was the primary Democratic congressman to publicly call on Biden to resign, saying Biden should “make the painful and difficult decision” to resign and citing the president's inability to “effectively defend his many accomplishments” in the talk.
Moderate Democrat Jared Golden of Maine wrote in a neighborhood newspaper on Tuesday that the talk had “not unsettled him as much as others because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: Even if I don't plan to vote for him, Donald Trump will win. And that's fine with me.”
Jean-Pierre said Biden, who has not taken questions from reporters since Thursday night's debate, will meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders on Wednesday. Biden also agreed to hearken to an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that may air Friday. He has trips planned to Wisconsin on Friday and Philadelphia on Monday. And he’ll hold a news conference during next week's NATO summit in Washington.
The president's increased schedule got here after a non-public discussion inside Biden's campaign team about what may very well be done to counteract the damaging impression left by last week's debate.
“We will go out there, all over the country. The Americans will see him for themselves,” Jean-Pierre said at a White House briefing, rejecting any suggestion that the president should undergo cognitive tests or provide additional details about his health.
When asked if the president was affected by a degenerative disease or dementia, Jean-Pierre said, “No. And I hope you ask the other person the same question,” she said, referring to Trump, who’s 78 and once challenged Biden to a cognitive test, only to confuse in the following sentence who had administered the test to him.
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