Biden defies on key campaign day as pressure to withdraw grows

A rebellious president Joe Biden told voters he wasn’t going anywhere and pledged to deny Donald Trump a second term in the White House, even as he faced more calls to drop out of the 2024 presidential race amid questions about his fitness to run for and serve out a second four-year term.

Biden, speaking to a raucous crowd of supporters in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, said he was the Democratic nominee in this year’s presidential election because of “millions of Democrats just like you” who voted for him in primaries “across America.”

“It’s the voters’ choice, but despite that, there are some people who don’t seem to care who you vote for… They’re trying to squeeze me out of the race,” he said, referring to a growing number of Democrats who want him out of the race over his aimless, scatterbrained and disturbing performance in his run against Donald Trump more than a week ago.

As supporters chanted “Let’s go, Joe” and “Four more years,” Biden declared he would not bow to the pressure.

“Let me be as clear as possible: I will continue to run. I will beat Donald Trump,” he said. “I beat him in 2020… and by the way, we will win again in 2024!”

Biden went on to say he would not allow “a 90-minute debate” to “undo three and a half years of work,” and touted the accomplishments of his presidency, including creating “15 million new jobs” and reducing student debt for “nearly 5 million Americans,” while also installing the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Earlier in the day As he left Washington for his campaign stop, The 81-year-old CEO was asked if he still believed he could defeat his likely opponent, former President Donald Trumpin the November election.

“Yes,” Biden said, pausing before walking up the stairs to Air Force One.

The president’s hastily arranged trip to the Badger State’s capital came the same day he was set to participate in a pivotal television interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, in which he hopes to reverse declining support for his candidacy among prominent Democratic donors and some public officials.

Biden performed poorly in his first debate with Trump since the 2020 election, but in the days since, a growing number of elected officials have said the best way for Biden to avoid defeat to Trump is to Give way to another candidatemost likely Vice President Kamala Harris.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, one of those former surrogates and supporters now calling for Biden to step down, said in a statement Friday that the president “saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the past four years.”

“The best path forward right now is for the president to make a decision. In 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,” she added.

Several members of Congress have also called on Biden to consider withdrawing from the race, and a growing number of top Democratic donors — Including Disney heirs Abigail Disney and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman said the 46th president should no longer consider him as a Democratic presidential candidate and threatened to stop donating to Democratic candidates until he does so.

Biden has so far refused to even consider dropping out, and in a series of public statements following that disastrous debate he has said he will remain in the race.

But privately, he has told confidants he may have to succumb to pressure to withdraw, but he remains confident he can convince doubters with a strong performance in a television interview on Friday and at a NATO summit he will host in Washington next week and at a news conference scheduled during the summit.