Biden insists on not abandoning his candidacy and reiterates that Trump It is a serious threat
▲ US President Joe Biden during his campaign yesterday at Renaissance High School in Detroit, Michigan.Afp Photo
Reuters and AFP
The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, July 13, 2024, p. 23
Washington. US President Joe Biden faced renewed calls from fellow Democrats on Wednesday to drop his re-election bid after a news conference on Wednesday in which he offered nuanced answers but occasionally stumbled over his words.
It’s not clear that Biden’s performance has convinced skeptics in his party that he is their best bet to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 election and serve another four-year term in the White House.
The president did not entirely reassure those who were frightened by his poor performance in the presidential debate against Trump on June 27, and so far at least 19 Democratic congressmen continue to pressure the president to allow the party to choose another standard-bearer.
Democrats are concerned that Biden’s low approval ratings and growing concerns that he is too old for office could cost them seats in the House and Senate, leaving them without a check in Washington, if Trump wins the White House, but Biden has made clear he has no intention of stepping aside.
If I show up at the convention and everyone says they want someone else, that’s the democratic process.Biden said, but It’s not going to happen. Yesterday in Detroit, in front of a fervent crowd, he insisted that he would not abandon the electoral race and assured that Trump represents a serious threat.
His party’s conclave is from August 19 to 22.
At Thursday’s press conference he referred to his vice president Kamala Harris as Vice President Trumpjust a few hours after introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as President Putin at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, causing murmurs in the room.
He also gave some confusing answers, but offered detailed assessments of Ukraine’s war with Russia and the Israel-Gaza conflict that served as a reminder of his decades of experience on the world stage.
However, some of his fellow believers were not reassured. House Speaker Hakeem Jefries met with the president to discuss the whole range of ideas, honest perspectives and conclusions about the way forwardhe said after the meeting, without giving details and without publicly expressing his support.
Opinions divided on the octogenarian
However, after his press conference yesterday, the head of the White House received the support of James Clyburn, of South Carolina, an influential Democrat, who assured that he should not abandon his candidacy for re-election. I’m with Biden no matter which way he goeshe said on NBC’s Today show. He also received endorsements from California Gov. Gavin Newson and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain.
Meanwhile, European leaders such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and the presidents of Spain and France, Pedro Sánchez and Emmanuel Macron, respectively, also expressed their solidarity with the president at the end of the NATO summit in Washington. Meanwhile, Geert Wilders, whose far-right party won the last elections in the Netherlands, mocked the US president, publishing a photo of Volodymyr Zelensky and Kamala Harris on X, with the following caption: President Putin meets with Vice President Trumpalluding to his recent lapses.
Various European media also editorialized on the situation: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung German described the press conference as a humiliationwhile the British newspaper The Guardian He called Biden’s performance painful to see.
In that context, an NPR/PBS poll published yesterday revealed that Biden leads Trump with 50 percent to 48 percent of voting intention, a slight increase compared to his position before the debate.
Judge denies Giuliani financial protection
On the Republican side, a US federal judge yesterday dismissed the request for bankruptcy protection filed by Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and Trump’s lawyer, paving the way for his creditors to collect the 148 million dollars he owes in various damages.
Giuliani was convicted of defaming Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two workers he accused of rigging the 2020 election results in Georgia.