U.S. President Joe Biden, with his five-decade political career and 2024 reelection campaign on the brink, told supporters in the political battleground state of Wisconsin on Friday, "I am staying in the race," and vowed to defeat former President Donald Trump for a second time.
Some Democratic lawmakers in Washington privately – and increasingly publicly – have voiced their thoughts that Biden, at 81, no longer has the mental acuity and physical stamina to take on Trump over the next four months leading to the November 5 election, let alone govern over the next four years.
But Biden assured a rally of about 300 people, "I am running, and I'm going to win again."
"I beat Donald Trump," a forceful Biden said, as the crowd cheered and waved campaign signs. "I will beat him again."
It was a crucial day for Biden to show the energy that on occasion has been lacking, particularly at his debacle of a debate with Trump last week. Biden often lost his train of thought, fumbled answers to questions from two CNN moderators, and failed to press the case why he and not Trump should be the U.S. leader for the next four years.
The Wisconsin rally came before Biden sat down for an interview with a leading U.S. journalist, ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. The network planned to air the question-and-answer session in its entirety Friday evening.
In an excerpt shown on the network's evening news show, Biden described his debate performance as "a bad night."
"I was exhausted," he said. "I was feeling terrible … a bad cold." He said his performance was "nobody's fault but mine."
Two major U.S. newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have reported in recent days that Biden's mental lapses have become more frequent in recent months, with some Western officials saying they noted his apparent decline at the recent G7 summit in Italy.
Biden's delivery and sharpness in answering Stephanopoulos' questions were sure to be watched and parsed, not only by Trump and his aides, but by Democrats wondering whether their candidate is up to taking on Trump, who is 78, and himself has sometimes misspoken.
Biden played off his own missteps, quoting one of Trump's campaign comments, when Trump said, "George Washington's army won the revolution by taking control of the airports from the British."
As the crowd laughed, Biden continued, "Talk about me misspeaking."
The White House realized the high stakes of the interview with the ABC anchor. Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that "millions of Americans" are expected to watch.
Most Democrats have held fast in their support for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, but some have been suggesting the party would be better off with Biden dropping out and Harris taking his place as the presidential standard bearer.
The national Democratic Party is holding its quadrennial nominating convention in August, leaving the party little time to settle on its standard bearer.
At least three Democrats in the House of Representatives have called for Biden to step down as the nominee, with Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts expressing his concerns in a Thursday radio interview and joining representatives Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Raul Grijalva of Arizona in seeking an alternative.
"President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding fathers,' George Washington's, footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump," Moulton told radio station WBUR.
While not going that far, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said in a carefully worded statement Friday that Biden now has a decision to make on "the best way forward."
"Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump," Healey said. "Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump."