WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday launched a crucial effort to salvage his embattled reelection campaign, saying it was about much more than his own political prospects but also the future of the country’s economy and democracy.
There is a growing sense that Biden has just days left to convincingly prove himself fit for office before Democratic support for him evaporates completely after his disastrous performance in last week’s debate against Republican Donald Trump.
In an interview with a Wisconsin radio station that aired Thursday, Biden said: “The stakes are really high. I know you know this. For democracy, for freedom … our economy, they’re all on the line.”
He added: “The president is the most powerful office in the world. But we need someone with wisdom and character.”
The interview on Civic Media Radio Network’s Earl Ingram Show, taped Wednesday, was part of a media and public events blitz that the Democratic president and his staff have acknowledged as a make-or-break moment. Some financiers postponed or canceled upcoming fundraisers, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
After hosting a July 4 barbecue at the White House for military families, Biden will campaign in Wisconsin on Friday, where he will be interviewed by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. The interview will air as a primetime special that evening.
He plans to be in Philadelphia on Sunday and give a wide-ranging press conference at the NATO summit in Washington next week.
It is not certain that his campaign will last that long if he does not perform well on ABC. Discussions that were once whispers about who should take his place if he were to step down are growing louder.
Biden is not ready to back down, he has made clear in conversations with Democratic governors, close allies and campaign staff.
But time is running out for a possible change. The Democratic National Committee announced weeks ago that it would hold a virtual call for a formal nomination before the party’s national convention, which begins Aug. 19.
“I am proud to be running for re-election as a president who made promises and kept them,” Biden said in the radio interview.
“I had a bad night. A bad night. I messed up,” he said of the debate, in which he gave halting and convoluted answers.
“But 90 minutes on stage doesn’t erase what I’ve done for the last 3 1/2 years,” he said in another interview with Philadelphia’s WURD Radio.
In his private conversations, Biden focused on how to turn the tide of his fraught debate and stressed the crucial nature of this year’s presidential election.
During a phone call, when asked what would happen if his course-correcting efforts didn’t work, Biden stressed that he understood the importance of the race and that he would put country first, according to a person who spoke directly to the president. The person was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Biden met in person and virtually with more than 20 Democratic governors at the White House on Wednesday night for more than an hour. Afterward, they described the conversation as “candid” and said they stood by Biden despite concerns about a Trump victory in November.
During that meeting, Biden told leaders that he had been examined by his doctor after his debate performance, according to two people familiar with the conversations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private conversation. Hours earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said that Biden had not been examined by a doctor.
The White House has attributed Biden’s debate performance, in which he appeared pale and his raspy voice occasionally broke, to a cold. Biden also said he was jet lagged after consecutive foreign trips that ended 12 days early.
Biden’s staff has resisted repeated calls to release more robust medical records for the 81-year-old president, who was declared fit for duty by his doctor after his last full medical exam in February.
Two Democratic lawmakers have publicly called for Biden to drop out of the race. But most Democratic lawmakers are taking a wait-and-see approach and are waiting to get a better sense of how the situation is developing through new polls and the interview, according to Democratic lawmakers who requested anonymity to speak bluntly about the president.
Some have suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris is the favorite to replace Biden if he were to withdraw. Those involved in private discussions acknowledge that Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan remain viable alternatives. But some insiders see Harris as the best candidate to quickly unite the party and avoid a messy and divisive convention battle.
Trump was seen on video declaring that Harris would be his new rival, saying, “She’s so pathetic.” It’s unclear when he made the comments, which were posted to his social media account.
While other Democratic allies have remained silent since the debate, frustration is growing over the Biden campaign’s response at a crucial time in the campaign, especially since Biden waited several days to directly engage in damage control with senior members of his own party.
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
