Joe Biden allies reject calls for him dropping out of 2024 race

Washington, DC [US], July 1: While President Joe Biden was away at Camp David for a long-planned family get-together, key US Democratic leaders stood firmly behind his back, rejecting the notion that he should end his 2024 campaign for a second four-year term in the White House because of his halting and disjointed debate performance last week against former President Donald Trump, reported Voice of America (VOA).

The Democratic allies of Biden readily acknowledged the 81-year-old Biden’s shortcomings in the nationally televised 90-minute debate in which he struggled at times to complete sentences and at one point mistakenly said he had killed off Medicare, the government’s health insurance program for older Americans.

According to a new CBS-YouGov poll, Americans, by a 72-27 per cent margin, do not think that Biden has the “mental and cognitive health to serve as president,” a reading that was seven percentage points worse on the same question compared to three weeks ago, VOA reported.

However, national polling between Biden and Trump still showed the contest remains a dead heat.

Meanwhile, the key Democratic officials rejected the suggestion of some rank-and-file Democrats and editorials in The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he drop out of the race for a younger candidate.

“The unfortunate truth is that Biden should withdraw from the race, for the good of the nation he has served so admirably for half a century,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the leading newspaper in the key southern political battleground state of Georgia.

“The shade of retirement is now necessary for President Biden,” it added, according to VOA.

“Oh, absolutely not,” Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. “Bad debates happen. The question is, ‘Who has Donald Trump ever shown up for other than himself and people like himself?’ I’m with Joe Biden, and it’s our assignment to make sure that he gets over the finish line come November.”

Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a prominent Biden supporter, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show, “I do not believe that Joe Biden has a problem leading for the next four years because he’s done a great job of leading for the last three-and-a-half years. I always say that the best predictor of future behaviour is past performance.”

He contended that what happened at the debate was “preparation overload”, reported VOA.