President Biden’s increasingly forceful statements that he will not drop out of the presidential race are sending a clear message to Democrats who might stray: Any future criticism will hurt the party’s chances against Donald J. Trump.
For days, Mr. Biden has said he would remain the party’s nominee after his poor debate performance unless “Almighty God” intervened. On Monday, he followed through on that assertion.
It started with an open letter to Democrats in Congress saying he was definitely running. It continued with a defiant call to one of his favorite cable news shows, denouncing the “elites” who were trying to push him out. It included a private midday video call with some of his top campaign donors and a call to a virtual meeting Monday night with a former bastion of his support: the Congressional Black Caucus.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mr. Biden told donors.
The moves amount to one expression of defiance Biden’s campaign hopes it will help him win respect as anxious Democratic lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after the holidays. At the same time, Biden’s team is trying to reframe the pressure campaign to force him to resign as a nurtured by elite parties instead of honestly reflecting the grassroots voters’ fears about the age and acumen of the 81-year-old commander-in-chief.
“I like Joe Biden fighting,” said Representative Robert Garcia of California, a Democrat and outspoken Biden supporter. “When he gets punched, he’s going to punch back and hit harder.”
As lawmakers returned to Washington, Mr. Biden received some key endorsements, including from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (“He’s in this race; the issue is resolved”), but also some concerns from influential lawmakers, including Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who is in the Democratic leadership (“We need to see a much stronger, more aggressive candidate”).
In both private and public remarks on Monday, Mr. Biden made it clear that he holds all the cards when it comes to deciding his political future. He won every state in the Democratic primary and garnered 14 million votes, earning him virtually every delegate heading to Chicago next month for the party’s convention.
“I’m not just a guy who is supposed to be right,” Biden told Mika Brzezinski, one of his “Morning Joe” co-hosts, in a phone interview on MSNBC. “I will be the Democratic nominee.”
Mr Biden is trying to turn the attention back to Mr Trump, saying on a call with top campaign donors: “We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump on the map.”
Still, even some of the president’s allies have questioned why the public relations campaign came more than 10 days after the debate instead of immediately afterward. Biden waited eight days after the debate to give his first unscripted interview with ABC News on Friday and did not call congressional leaders until several days after the debate.
David Doak, a longtime Democratic strategist, said Mr Biden’s push to impose party discipline was understandable even if it risked “dividing the party at the worst possible time”. By explicitly saying he would not resign, Mr Biden is making it harder for Democrats to call on him to do so because they would weaken him in the fall.
“Strategically, that’s what I would advise him to do if he wants to retain the nomination at all costs,” Doak said. “The question is ‘at all costs.’”
On MSNBC, Mr. Biden urged those who wanted another candidate to try to run against him. “Go ahead, declare your candidacy for president,” Mr. Biden challenged them. “Challenge me at the convention.”
In 2020, Mr. Biden talked about serving as a “bridge” to the next generation of Democratic talent. Now, he sees himself as the party’s best chance to beat Mr. Trump again, despite widespread concerns about his age.
“I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t absolutely believe I was the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump in 2024,” Biden said.
Despite being the head of the party and the most powerful elected official in the country, Biden on Monday attempted to assume the role of an outsider against his own party’s establishment.
“I’m very angry with the elites,” Mr. Biden said on MSNBC, a program long a favorite of Democratic politicians. “I’m not talking about you,” he said of his “Morning Joe” co-hosts, “I’m talking about the party elites who know better.” He delivered those last words with a flat tone of contempt.
He added that his weekend campaign rallies in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin reaffirmed his belief that voters were behind him. “I don’t care what millionaires think,” Biden said.
Less than three hours later, Mr. Biden joined a Zoom call with members of his national finance committee — the top donors, millionaires and financiers who pool contributions from others — to thank them for their support.
Mr Biden’s efforts to reframe the race as a battle against elites — in the same way Mr Trump has often criticised his own party’s leadership — have not gone down well with some in the party.
“The desire to pit ‘Democratic elites’ against ‘ordinary people’ is bad,” said Hilary Rosen, a veteran Democratic strategist. written on X“The elites have really been slow to care about Biden. The majority of voters have been worried about this for the last two years.”
A New York Times/Siena College poll last week shows that 74 percent of voters say Mr. Biden is too old to be effective, including 59 percent of Democrats.
A day after several influential House Democrats met online in a private call and have raised their concerns On the Biden front, the president’s campaign has begun to pick up steam and has received more statements of support, including from several key black lawmakers.
“I support the president 100 percent,” Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said on MSNBC. The current chair, Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, issued a statement on Monday endorsing Biden: “President Joe Biden is the nominee and has been chosen by millions of voters across this country.”
Representative Grace Meng of New York, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, also issued a statement of support. Some who have privately criticized Mr. Biden have largely remained silent in public, including Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, who declined to answer questions about the president at an appearance in Manhattan.
Still, Mr Biden faced some fresh doubts from Democrats on Monday.
Senator Jon Tester of Montana, who is up for re-election this fall in a state Mr Trump is expected to win in a landslide, said the president “has to prove to the American people — including me — that he can do the job for another four years”.
And Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio said “time is running out” for Mr Biden, who he said needed to be able to make his case “many more times”.
Mr Biden’s next steps are expected to be a major topic of discussion on Tuesday when House Democrats are scheduled to hold a members-only press conference at party headquarters.
A key concern for many Biden allies is the president’s ability — or inability — to handle events that appear unscripted.
On Monday, White House spokesman John Kirby announced that the president would also participate in what he called an “important press conference” on Thursday following the NATO summit.
But in a sign of the challenges ahead for the president, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre found herself having to dodge questions about why a Parkinson’s disease expert was visiting the White House. eight times in eight months at the same press conference.
Ron Klain, Mr Biden’s former chief of staff who helped him prepare for the debate, written on X that “it takes the right candidate” to beat Mr. Trump and that “the pundits always bet on the articulate opponents — Democrats and Republicans — who lost.”
“There’s only one person who can beat him,” Mr. Klain added.
Patrick McGeehan And Nicholas Nehamas Contribute report.
