US President Joe Biden was supposed to shine at the NATO summit. But doubts about his re-election overshadow everything. And criticism is coming from increasingly prominent quarters.
US President Joe Biden is losing more and more supporters in the debate about his mental and physical health. For the first time since the debacle of the TV debate with Donald Trump, a Democratic senator, Peter Welch, publicly called on the 81-year-old to drop out of the race for the White House on Wednesday (local time). “For the good of the country, I call on President Biden to withdraw from the race,” Welch, a senator from the state of Vermont, said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. He is the first Democratic senator to do so so explicitly.
The news portal Axios also reports that the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has shown donors that he is willing to consider a candidate swap. Schumer has so far publicly supported Biden. In response to the report, his office only said that Schumer supports Biden and will continue to work to defeat Republican Donald Trump in November.
The Democratic senators plan to meet with close advisers of Biden on Thursday. In the House of Representatives, the other chamber of the US Congress, at least eight Democratic representatives have already called on Biden to give up his candidacy.
Nancy Pelosi and George Clooney increase pressure on Joe Biden
Meanwhile, former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi refused to say clearly in a TV interview whether Biden should continue the fight with Trump. Instead, she called on the 81-year-old to make a decision about his candidacy. Pelosi’s subtle distancing from Biden weighs heavily and resonates, as she is still considered a heavyweight in the party. Shortly after the failed TV debate, the 84-year-old had already said that it was “legitimate” to ask whether Biden’s weak TV appearance was just an “episode” or a permanent condition.
And some of Biden’s wealthy supporters in Hollywood are also no longer keeping their feet still. Film star George Clooney, a major fundraiser for Biden’s campaign, called on the president in a guest article for the New York Times on Wednesday to make room for another candidate.
“I love Joe Biden,” wrote Clooney, who hosted a celebrity fundraising gala with Biden in Los Angeles last month. “But the one battle he can’t win is against time.” The Biden at the fundraising gala was not the Biden of 2010, or even the Biden of 2020. “It was the same man we all saw at the debate.”
Leading Democrats must “ask this president to voluntarily resign,” Clooney continued. It’s about age, “nothing else.”
Biden is combative
During the TV debate with Trump, Biden spoke with a hoarse voice, repeatedly tangled up his phrasing and left sentences unfinished. Since then, the 81-year-old, oldest president in US history, has been faced with an ever-growing debate about his physical and mental suitability for the presidency.
Despite the criticism, Biden himself says he is “determined” to go through with his candidacy. At the start of the NATO summit in Washington, he appeared combative. In his speech on the 75th anniversary of the military alliance, the US President spoke energetically and largely without slip-ups – although, unlike the TV debate, he read the speech from a teleprompter.
Biden’s combative speech: “Ukraine can and will stop Putin”
01:56 min
The real public test of Biden’s mental robustness, however, will not come until the last day of the summit on Thursday, when he gives one of his rare press conferences. At the event, Biden will have to speak freely and spontaneously and without the help of a teleprompter. On Monday, the president also plans to give an interview to NBC.
Since the TV appearance, Biden and his entourage have been trying hard to stifle the debate among Democrats about his suitability for the election battle against Trump and a second term before it escalates into open rebellion. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said she believed that Democrats were now “absolutely” united behind Biden. However, NBC reported on Wednesday, citing Biden campaign sources, that fundraising had now become “disastrous.”
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Meanwhile, Republicans applied pressure in the discussion about Biden’s health. Axios reported that a House committee had subpoenaed three senior White House officials to testify about Biden’s health.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
