2024 US presidential election: defiant Biden hangs on as Democrats step up pressure to exit race

More Democrats break ranks with Biden and key donors threaten to cut off funding if he insists on staying the course

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With election day just four months away, any move to replace Joe Biden as presidential nominee would need to be made sooner rather than later. Photo: AP

Published: 9:55am, 7 Jul 2024

Joe Biden’s presidential re-election bid hung in the balance on Saturday, after his latest efforts to put a disastrous debate showing behind him failed to silence voices urging him to quit the White House race.

Murmurs of dissent within his own Democratic Party have – in the case of five individual House representatives – morphed into direct calls for him to drop out. And a number of key donors have threatened to cut off funding if Biden insists on staying the course.

“I do not believe that the president can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump,” Angie Craig, the latest House Democrat to break ranks, said on Saturday.

The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has scheduled a virtual meeting of senior Democrat representatives for Sunday to discuss the best way forward, and Democrat Senator Mark Warner is reportedly working to convene a similar forum in the upper chamber.

In what had been billed as a make-or-break TV interview on Friday, Biden’s strategy was to flatly deny the falling poll numbers and concerns over his mental and physical fitness triggered by his dismal performance against rival Donald Trump.

He blamed a severe cold for the debate debacle and insisted it was just a “bad night” rather than evidence of increasing frailty and cognitive decline.