With pressure mounting on him to step aside, President Joe Biden dramatically released a letter to Democrats telling them he is ‘firmly committed’ to staying in the race to keep the White House.
Biden issued the letter just as lawmakers are coming back from a July 4th recess where he has faced growing calls to quit the race after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump and a string of bad polling data showing he is in danger of losing.
In it, Biden, 81, takes shots at the press, donors and party operatives who have said the party’s only chance is to throw him over the side.
‘Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump.
‘I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024,’ Biden wrote, days after his ABC News interview failed to quiet critics.
Then he pointed to his primary victories. ‘We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively,’ he wrote. ‘I received over 14 millions votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process.’
His language also suggested he holds the cards as he approaches the party’s Chicago convention next month.
‘I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin,’ he wrote.
He also described the primary process where better known challengers begged off – leaving him with token opposition from Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) and Marianne Williamson.
‘Only three people chose to challenge me. One fared so badly that he left the primaries to run as an independent,’ he said, referencing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ‘Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated,’ he said of Phillips. ‘The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party.’
Biden remains in peril this week, as lawmakers return to D.C. and leaders huddle amid the crisis in his campaign.
In the days that preceded the extraordinary letter from his party’s presumptive nominee, Reps. Angie Craic (Minn.), Seth Moulton (Mass.), Lloyd Doggett (Texas) Raul Grijalva (Ariz.) and Mike Quigley (Ill.) have all called for Biden to go.
His faltering debate performance and failure to clean up the mess in successive days even while holding campaign events and granting interviews has brought party fractures to the fore. Some insiders are taking a new look at Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential standard bearer – and a former longtime Barack Obama aide penned an essay calling her the only viable alternative and saying it would be ‘insulting’ to pass her over.
Other party insiders have pleaded with Biden to step back to allow a swing state governor or other elected Democrat with less political baggage to take on Trump, who is leading Biden in national as well as key swing state polls.
Biden’s letter implied Democrats would pay a price if they cast him aside. ‘Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?’ he asked.
He cast his decision as grounded in a ‘deep obligation’ in the faith and trust of the voters, although opinion polls have shown large majorities consider him too old for another term.
‘It was their decision to make. Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of indivicuals, no matter how well intentioned.’
Then he linked his decision to his democracy-themed campaign to take on Trump.
‘How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party?’ he asked. ‘I cannot do that. I will not do that.’
His letter comes in a week when Biden will once again be forced to prove himself, this time hosting world leaders at a NATO summit in D.C. He has also scheduled a press conference, after taking criticism for having his staff decide which reporters he’ll call on and limiting such engagements to just a few questions.
His printed letter also makes many of the arguments against Trump that he failed to muster during his debate or sit-down with George Stephanopoulos, hammering Trump on tax cuts, tricle down economics, health care, and taking on ‘Big Pharma.’
During the debate, he awkwardly said he ‘beat Medicare,’ requiring his staff to explain after the fact.
He ended his letter by mentioning some of the fears raised by his allies about taking any radical new course, despite the hole Biden is in. ‘Any weakening of our resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,’ he wrote.
The letter comes as his campaign says Biden has phoned 20 Democratic lawmakers amid the pressure campaign against him.
Biden underlined his letter by phoning into ‘Morning Joe’ on MSNBC – a platform Trump used to his advantage in 2016.
‘We’re not going anywhere. I am not going anywhere,’ Biden insisted.
He mocked Trump for golfing and using a cart, while ‘I’ve been all over the country.’
He brushed off polls. ‘We’re just starting to focus on Trump,’ he said. He ridiculed Trump for talking with his ‘wealthy friends’ at Mar-a-Lago and laying low after the debate.
‘The president and the first lady – we spoke at a campaign ice cream social,’ Biden said, correcting himself while running through his events of the week.