- Biden shows no signs of withdrawing from the presidential race.
- Obama and other top leaders pledge to support Biden.
- Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
Joe Biden, the president of the United States, declared on Friday that he plans to defeat his Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump in the upcoming November elections.
He gave no indication he would consider dropping out of the race after a lackluster debate performance that worried fellow Democrats. Reuters reported.
“I know I'm not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden, 81, said at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a day after the face-to-face showdown with Trump, 78, that was widely seen as a defeat for the Democratic president.
“I don't walk as easily as I used to, I don't speak as well as I used to, I don't debate as well as I used to,” he said, as the crowd chanted “four more years.”
“I wouldn't run for office again if I didn't believe with all my heart and soul that I could do this job. The stakes are too high,” Biden said.
Biden's verbal stumbles and sometimes confusing responses during the debate raised concerns among voters about his ability to serve another four-year term and prompted some Democrats to consider replacing him as their candidate for the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
In an all-hands meeting Friday, the campaign assured its staff that Biden had no intention of dropping out of the race, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
Although Trump posed a number of falsehoods throughout the debate, the focus afterward shifted squarely to Biden, especially among Democrats.
But several of the party's top figures, including former President Barack Obama, said they would stick with Biden.
“Debate nights are bad. Believe me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for everyday people his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Obama wrote on X.
He New York Times The editorial board, which endorsed Biden in 2020, asked him to leave the race.
“The greatest public service Mr. Biden can perform now is to announce that he will no longer seek reelection,” the editorial states.
Meanwhile, questions have also arisen about Trump's fitness for office in the wake of his conviction last month in New York for covering up a hush-money payment to a porn star, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his chaotic tenure in office.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before his party meets to formally nominate him.
