President Biden is urging congressional Democrats to stop questioning whether he should end his re-election bid and “move forward as a unified party” in order to defeat former President Trump in their 2024 election rematch.
And the president, in a letter sent to congressional Democrats on Monday as they return from the July 4th holiday recess, reiterated that he’s “firmly committed to staying in this race” and argued that any further questioning of his candidacy “only helps Trump and hurts us.”
Following his extremely rough debate performance a week and a half ago in his first face-to-face showdown with Trump, the president has been attempting to prove that he still has the stamina and acuity to handle the toughest and most demanding job in the world. And he’s trying to prove that he has the fortitude to defeat Trump.
The debate was a major setback for Biden, who at 81 is the oldest president in the nation’s history. His halting delivery and stumbling answers at the showdown in Atlanta sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and a rising tide of public and private calls from within his own party for him to step aside as its 2024 standard-bearer.
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President Biden and former President Trump debate on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (Getty Images)
But Biden, in his letter, emphasized, “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.”
The president highlighted the “extensive conversations” he’s had in recent days with party leaders, rank-and-file members and Democratic voters, and that he’s “heard the concerns that people have.”
“I’m not blind to them,” he stressed.
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But he spotlighted that “I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.”
He also highlighted his overwhelming victory over a couple of long-shot rivals in the race for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
“Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?”
“I decline to do that,” Biden added as he answered his own question.
President Biden speaks at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
A handful of House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to end his re-election bid. And on Sunday, Fox News and other news organizations reported that four House Democrats who hold top positions on key committees said on a conference call with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., that the president needed to step aside.
Meanwhile, some Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, could meet as early as Tuesday to discuss the president’s political future.
But Biden, in his letter, argued that enough is enough.
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“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it is time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump,” Biden said.
The president argued that “any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” Biden wrote. “It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”
A handful of national polls conducted entirely after the debate and released last week contained plenty of red flags for the president – including Trump widening his single-digit edge over Biden and deepening concerns of Americans about whether Biden was up to the task of running the country.
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But a Bloomberg-Morning Consult poll released over the weekend indicated Biden gaining ground on Trump in some of the key battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Biden’s letter to congressional Democrats was sent in conjunction with a memo from his campaign spotlighting the poll, his increasingly busy campaign travel schedule, and a slew of supportive comments from various figures in the Democratic Party.
Separately, Biden has directly called some two dozen congressional Democrats, with more calls to come, a campaign source told Fox News.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Tyler Olson contributed to this report
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