US President Joe Biden continued on Thursday, the American Independence Day, to multiply interventions in an attempt to put out the fire started a week ago by his calamitous performance during a debate against Donald Trump.
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“I was bad in a debate,” he acknowledged again in an interview with a local Pennsylvania radio station broadcast Thursday morning. But “90 minutes on stage doesn’t erase what I did for three and a half years.”
The 81-year-old Democratic president is facing growing calls to withdraw his candidacy for the November presidential election amid concerns over his fitness.
But the White House on Wednesday categorically rejected the possibility that he would withdraw from the race for a second term. The president is “absolutely not” considering throwing in the towel, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
“I made a mistake,” Joe Biden admitted again during an interview with a local Wisconsin radio station. But “we are going to win this election,” he promised in this interview recorded the day before.
On Wednesday, the president met with Democratic leaders in Congress and received Democratic governors from several US states, who then confirmed their support for him.
“It was a good conversation with the president and the vice president because she was honest,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. “We said we will support him.”
For Independence Day, a holiday celebrated by American families across the country on Thursday, Joe Biden is due to attend a barbecue with military personnel in Washington in the afternoon, along with First Lady Jill Biden.
The military’s dedication “reminds us that democracy is never guaranteed — and that every generation must fight to maintain it,” Joe Biden, who regularly accuses his Republican opponent Donald Trump of being a threat to democracy, wrote Thursday morning on X.
The smallest actions and tone of the octogenarian Democrat will then be closely scrutinized when he speaks in the evening, before attending the traditional fireworks, accompanied by his vice-president Kamala Harris, who continues to support him unwaveringly in public.
Alarming polls
On Friday, Joe Biden must continue to try to reassure by holding a campaign meeting in Madison, in the decisive state of Wisconsin, then by giving an interview to the ABC television network, which is already shaping up to be crucial.
He is also due to hold a press conference next week.
The aim of these interventions in front of the press: to prove his ability to express himself without a teleprompter and to silence the doubts that have arisen in recent days about his ability to lead the country for four more years.
Two Democratic lawmakers this week openly called for a stronger candidate than Joe Biden for the presidential election.
Major newspapers, including the New York Times editorial board, have also called for him to step down.
Two polls released Wednesday rekindled the crisis, showing Donald Trump has a clear lead in national voting intentions.
The Republican billionaire, who has initially remained relatively discreet, published a video on his Truth Social network on Wednesday night, showing himself on a golf cart and speaking to unidentified people.
“I destroyed that old, good-for-nothing piece of trash,” Donald Trump says of Joe Biden during the debate. “They just announced he’s probably going to drop out,” he adds in the video, filmed at an undisclosed date.
“That means we end up with Kamala,” he added, referring to Kamala Harris. “She’s so bad, so pathetic.”
The White House, for its part, justified Joe Biden’s disastrous performance during the debate — staring into space, muddled sentences, etc. — by “a cold” and “jet lag” resulting from international travel.
A White House spokesman said the Democratic president had “been seen” by a doctor a few days later for his cold. A clarification likely to fuel criticism, as the White House said Wednesday that Joe Biden had not undergone a medical examination since his checkup in February.
