US President Joe Biden received support on Friday from two prominent Democrats who said he should finish his presidential race, while other members of the party were considering whether to support the 81-year-old president in his bid for re-election to a second term.
“I’m fully in favor of that. I’m going with Biden no matter what direction he takes,” Rep. James Clyburn said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, the day after Biden held a major news conference to quell doubts about his renomination.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been touted as a possible successor, said he was also sticking with Biden. “I’m fully in favor of that,” he said in an excerpt from an interview published by CBS.
Clyburn, 83, is widely respected among black Americans whose support is essential to Biden’s re-election campaign this year, while Newsom, 56, is one of several younger governors widely seen as the future of the party.
Clyburn has been in Congress for more than 30 years and played a leading role in Biden’s success in the 2020 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Brittany Peterson called on the president to withdraw and allow the party to choose another candidate, bringing the number of Democratic members calling on Biden to step down to 18.
“Please pass the torch to one of our many qualified Democratic leaders so we have the best chance to defeat Donald Trump,” Petersen wrote on social media.
Democratic officials, donors and activists are trying to determine whether Biden is their best bet to defeat Trump in the Nov. 5 election and whether he is capable of winning another four-year term.
Two Democratic fundraisers, Dmitry Melhorn and John Morgan, told Reuters they were pleased with the news conference.
But The New York Times reported that unnamed donors told a pro-Biden political action committee that nearly $90 million in pledges would remain on hold as long as Biden remained in the race.
Jeffries meets with Biden
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said he met with Biden on Thursday evening to voice Democratic views on his candidacy. Jeffries did not say whether he personally supported Biden staying in the race.
With most American voters deeply divided into different ideological camps, polls show a tight presidential race.
Democrats worry that Biden’s low approval ratings, coupled with growing concerns that he is too old to handle the job, could cause the party to lose seats in the House and Senate, losing their grip on power in Washington if Trump wins the presidency.
Biden referred to his running mate Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” just hours after he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at a NATO summit, drawing boos from the audience.
Biden’s responses were often vague during the news conference, but he also offered detailed assessments of global issues including the war between Ukraine and Russia and the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, drawing on his decades of experience on the world stage.
A senior Biden campaign official described the US president’s performance as “the worst ever. Not good. But not bad enough to make him change his mind.”
Biden will try to turn the spotlight on Trump during a rally he will hold this evening in Detroit.
The Michigan city is also the headquarters of the United Auto Workers union, whose leaders have endorsed Biden but are now evaluating their options, three sources told Reuters.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week showed Biden and Trump tied at 40 percent support each, but some analysts have warned that Biden is losing ground in a number of swing states that will determine the outcome of the election.
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