Amid a growing number of calls from within his own party to step aside and let someone else run, either President Joe Biden or the inner circle of Jill Biden’s aides protecting him have sent Congressional Democrats a letter asserting he’s the only one who can beat Donald Trump and that they would be undermining democracy if they tried to replace him.
As we reach the midway point of the second week of calls for the president to cancel his re-election bid, Biden is reaffirming to his party that he isn’t going to step aside, complicating matters for a party that sees a candidate in severe decline.
NEW: Biden reiterates his pledge to run and calls for Democrats to rally around him.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end,” he says in a letter to Congressional Democrats. “It is time to come together.” pic.twitter.com/wZYb2zYiAM
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) July 8, 2024
“We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively,” Biden wrote to his colleagues in Congress. “I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin.”
“This was a process open to anyone who wanted to run,” he added. “Only three people chose to challenge me.”
The letter comes as Congress returns from recess and faces some very difficult choices. Recent polling has shown Biden has become a drag on his own down-ballot allies, and while a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll shows the race tightening, other polling is more reflective of the trend that began with the debate in late June: The president losing ground to Trump.
But Biden – and the inner circle of folks surrounding (and protecting) him – remains convinced he is the only person who can beat Trump.
“Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries,” he wrote. “I carried it in 2020 when the fate of our nation was at stake. I also know these concerns come from a place of real respect for my lifetime of public service and my record as President, and I have been moved by the expressions of affection for me from so many who have known me well and supported me over the course of my public life.”
“I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024,” he then said.
But his words, to some Democrats, fly in the face of reality. He forcefully says he’s fit for the job, but an increasing number of leaks and details from within the White House show that Biden needs more and more prep work and plenty of helping hands to get through important events.
READ MORE: New Report of How They Prep Biden for Events Adds to the Furor
The news comes via Axios, which has been releasing several stories damaging to the White House narrative that Biden is just fine.
Driving the news: Before a presidential event, the White House sends event staffers a document to emulate when preparing their own materials for the president.
- One template — a copy of which was obtained by Axios — is short and simple, with one large picture of the event space on each page, accompanied with big text such as: “View from podium,” and “View from audience.”
- In the five-page document, two pages are separate pictures of, “Walk to podium.”
“It surprised me that a seasoned political pro like the president would need detailed verbal and visual instructions on how to enter and exit a room,” a staffer told the publication.
You can read Biden’s full letter to Democrats below.
Fellow Democrats,
Now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, 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.
I have had extensive conversations with the leadership of the party, elected officials, rank and file members, and most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days or so. I have heard the concerns that people have – their good faith fears and worries about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them. Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden the nominee of our party carries. I carried it in 2020 when the fate of our nation was at stake. I also know these concerns come from a place of real respect for my lifetime of public service and my record as President, and I have been moved by the expressions of affection for me from so many who have known me well and supported me over the course of my public life. I’ve been grateful for the rock-solid, steadfast support from so many elected Democrats in Congress and all across the country and taken great strength from the resolve and determination I’ve seen from so many voters and grassroots supporters even in the hardest of weeks.
I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.
We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively. I received over 14 million votes, 87% of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin.
This was a process open to anyone who wanted to run. Only three people chose to challenge me.
One fared so badly that he left the primaries to run as an independent. Another attacked me for being too old and was soundly defeated. The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party.
Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?
I decline to do that. I feel a deep obligation to the faith and the trust the voters of the Democratic Party have placed in me to run this year. It was their decision to make. Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned. The voters – and the voters alone – decide the nominee of the Democratic Party.
How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that.
I will not do that.
I have no doubt that I – and we – can and will beat Donald Trump. We have an historic record of success to run on. From creating over 15 million jobs (including 200,000 just last month), reaching historic lows on unemployment, to revitalizing American manufacturing with 800,000 jobs, to protecting and expanding affordable health care, to rebuilding America’s roads, bridges, highways, ports and airports, and water systems, to beating Big Pharma and lowering the cost of prescription drugs, including $35 a month insulin for seniors, to providing student debt relief for nearly 5 million Americans to an historic investment in combatting climate change.
More importantly, we have an economic vision to run on that soundly beats Trump and the MAGA Republicans. They are siding with the wealthy and the big corporations and we are siding with the working people of America. It wasn’t an isolated moment for Trump to stand at Mar-A-Lago and tell the oil industry they should give him $1 billion and he will do whatever they want.
That’s whose side Trump and the MAGA Republicans are on. Trump and the MAGA Republicans want another $5 trillion in tax cuts for rich people so they can cut Social Security and Medicare. We will never let that happen. It’s trickle-down economics on steroids. We know the way to build the economy is from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. We are finally going to make the rich and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes in this country. The MAGA party is also still determined to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which could throw 45 million Americans off their coverage. We will never let that happen either. Trump got rich denying rental housing to Black people. We have a plan to build 2 million new housing units in America. They want to let Big Pharma charge as much as they want again. What do you think America’s seniors will think when they know Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to take away their $35 insulin – as well as the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs we Democrats just got them? Or what do you think American families are going to think when they find out Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to hit them with a new $2,500 national sales tax on all the imported products they buy.
We are the ones lowering costs for families – from health care to prescription drugs to student debt to housing. We are the ones protecting Social Security and Medicare. Everything they’re proposing raises costs for most Americans – except their tax cuts which will go to the rich.
We are protecting the freedoms of Americans. Trump and the MAGA Republicans are taking them away. They have already for the first time in history taken away a fundamental freedom from the American people by overturning Roe v. Wade. They have decided politicians should make the most personal of decisions that should be made by women and their doctors and those closest to them. They have already said they won’t stop there – and are going after everything from contraception to IVF to the right to marry who you love. And they have made it clear they will ban abortion nationwide. We will let none of that happen. I have made it clear that if Kamala and I are reelected, and the nation elects a Democratic House and Senate, we will make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again. We are the ones who will bring real Supreme Court reform; Donald Trump and his majority want more of the same from the Court, and the chance to add to the right-wing majority they built by subverting the norms and principles of the nomination and confirmation process.
And we are standing up for American democracy. After January 6th, Trump has proven that he is unfit to ever hold the office of President. We can never allow him anywhere near that office again. And we never will.
My fellow Democrats – we have the record, the vision, and the fundamental commitment to America’s freedoms and our Democracy to win.
The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end. We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.
Sincerely,
Joseph R. Biden Jr.
President of the United States of America
