(ASSOCIATED PRESS) Four years ago, candidate Joe Biden stood before supporters at a Detroit high school, flanked by Kamala Harris and other rising Democratic stars, and called himself a bridge to the next generation of leaders.
Biden, now a president seeking reelection, returns to that same high school Friday with many in his party now pleading for him to fulfill that very promise and step aside. But Biden remains defiant that he'll remain in the race despite a disastrous debate performance that triggered a wave of calls for him to end his candidacy.
During a news conference Thursday, when asked why he no longer considered himself a “bridge” to the next generation of leaders, Biden responded that “what changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, foreign policy, and domestic division."
“We've never been here before,” Biden continued. “And that's the other reason why I didn't, you say, hand off to another generation. I gotta finish the job.”
In the two weeks since his debate debacle, Biden and his team have been on a relentless sprint to convince fretting lawmakers, nervous donors and a skeptical electorate that at the age of 81, he is still capable of being president. But a spate of travel to battleground states, interviews with journalists and a rare solo news conference have done little to tamp down the angst within the party about Biden's candidacy and his prospects against Donald Trump in November.
So far, one Democratic senator and roughly 20 House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to step aside. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has indicated Biden still has a decision to make on whether to run, even though the president has made it clear he remains in the race.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries met privately with Biden after the press conference, sharing the “full breadth” of views from the House Democrats about the path forward in the president’s campaign for reelection, he said in a letter to colleagues. Biden spent the hours before he left for Michigan meeting separately with Asian American and Latino lawmakers, although with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the president was told directly by California Rep. Mike Levin that he should step down as the Democratic nominee, according to three people familiar with that call who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
Still, Biden advisers and aides, largely satisfied with the president's press conference performance Thursday at the conclusion of the NATO summit, are more forcefully urging the reticent factions of the party to move on from the Atlanta debate.
Michael Tyler, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, said donations “exploded” Thursday night during the president’s news conference, describing it as a sign that support for the president remains strong “across our coalition.”
“We have close to 40,000 donations last night alone,” Tyler told reporters traveling to Detroit with Biden. He said the donations came in at a clip that was seven times the average.
And South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the president's most influential allies, said in an NBC interview Friday morning that chatter about whether Biden should stay in the race needs to stop.
“The conversation should focus on the record of this administration, on the alternative to his election, and let Joe Biden continue to make his own decisions about his future,” Clyburn said. “He's earned that right. And I'm going to give him that much respect.”
Biden's campaign has indirectly acknowledged that Biden's route to the White House is narrowing, saying the so-called “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is now the “clearest pathway” to victory even while insisting other battleground states like Arizona and Nevada are not out of reach.
