Last Update July 05, 2024 09:49am ET

President Biden has so far resisted mounting pressure to drop out of the 2024 race, announcing a $50 million media blitz that will target battleground state voters ahead of a make or break interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday.

Covered by: Chris Pandolfo, Stepheny Price and Scott McDonald

Fast Facts

•  President Biden’s disastrous performance at last week’s debate has unleashed pent up concern about his candidacy from Democrats 
•  Biden’s top campaign aides have worked damage control with Democratic elected officials, major donors and party members throughout the week 
•  Though Biden insists he will not drop out of the race, a slew of polls show him trailing former President Trump in a head-to-head matchup 

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2 hour(s) ago

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Biden supporters in battleground states say it’s time for POTUS to go

Dozens of voters in four battleground states told the New York Times that they no longer believe he can defeat former President Trump in the 2024 election.

In 80 interviews at Independence Day celebrations, pie-eating contests and political events across Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina, more than half of voters who backed Biden in 2020 said he should now drop out of the race following his disastrous debate performance against Trump.

About a quarter of those interviewed said he should stay in, and the rest were unsure, according to the Times.

“He should exit the race,” said Gerry Ford, a 72-year-old engineer from Wauwatosa, Wisc. “The sooner the better.” 

He said the Biden campaign has not been transparent since the debate. 

“It fulfills all of our suspicions about politicians that they can’t be straight with voters,” he said. “It’s embarrassing for the country.”

Michigan voter Greg Holmes, 71, a retired psychologist, said he went to a campaign event featuring first lady Jill Biden and held a sign that said, “Step Aside Joe!” 

“If Biden says and does what I call the right thing, or courageous thing, and passes the baton, I will be ecstatic and fired up for the next person,” Holmes said. “Because I think Trump really represents a terrible, terrible threat to our democracy.”

Emma Due, 18, said she was not excited about casting her first ballot for Biden but likely would because he is not Trump. 

“Kamala Harris would carry the torch, and she’s better than Trump,” she told the Times. “There’s a lot of new ideas that younger people express, but it’s not reflected in our candidates.”

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20 min(s) ago

Democratic senator explains why Harris is best Biden backup in football terms: report

A Democratic senator who discussed the party’s movement toward Vice President Kamala Harris as the best alternative candidate to President Biden explained their reasoning with an extended football metaphor.

The unnamed lawmaker told CNN that Biden is like a star quarterback who needs to be taken off the field and Harris his backup. 

“We start talking in the huddle: ‘Do we put in the backup QB?’ The backup knows our team, the backup knows the plays, the backup has played in the NFL,” the senator said. “The crowd in the stands full of passionate fans starts chanting: ‘Put in the kid from Alabama!’ ‘Put in the QB from Wisconsin!’ All just because the backup threw an interception earlier. But we know the backup and have confidence in them.”

The senator said some fans, i.e. Democratic donors and party strategists, want to draft unproven talents, like Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to run a national campaign without the experience Harris has already having done so.

“I just want to say to all the fans: ‘Do you not get that they’ve only played college, they’ve never played a single play in the NFL? They don’t know our team or the plays?’” the senator said. “The players are like, ‘That’s nuts. Let’s see if our star quarterback is coming back.’ But if he doesn’t, the idea of our suddenly drafting someone from a school with a different playbook who hasn’t played a single game in the NFL is a huge risk.”

Posted by Chris Pandolfo Share

33 min(s) ago

Longtime Biden friends say president didn’t remember their names in social settings: Report

A New York Magazine article published Thursday described multiple instances indicating President Biden’s decline has been treated like a “dark family secret for many elite supporters,” such as him not remembering the names of longtime friends.

President Biden’s widely criticized performance in last week’s debate has opened the floodgates of commentators questioning his ability to serve. New York Magazine’s Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi added to the pile-on in a grim piece headlined, “The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden”, based on months of interviews that caused a major stir on social media.

Among numerous accounts of her work covering Biden in the past few years, Nuzzi wrote that those “who encountered the president in social settings sometimes left their interactions disturbed. Longtime friends of the Biden family, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, were shocked to find that the president did not remember their names.”

She wrote one account of a guest who had attended a White House event last year, who allegedly realized Biden would not be able to make it through the entire reception, making the guest suddenly “open to an idea that they had previously dismissed as right-wing propaganda: The president may not really be the acting president after all.”

Posted by Chris Pandolfo Share

50 min(s) ago

Biden faces the most consequential weekend of his presidential rematch with Trump

As he frantically fights to salvage his campaign following last week’s disastrous debate performance, the next couple of days may determine if President Biden can survive or fall victim to a rising tide of calls from within his own party to end his re-election bid.

The tests for the 81-year-old president begin on Friday, as he aims to prove that he has the fortitude to defeat former President Trump in their 2024 election rematch.

First up is a rally Friday afternoon in battleground Wisconsin, which will be followed by a sit-down interview with ABC News that will run in prime time on network television. On Sunday, the president and First Lady Jill Biden appear in Pennsylvania, another key swing state he needs to carry to win re-election.

Through it all, the oldest president in the nation’s history will need to show Americans that he still has the stamina and acuity to handle the toughest and most demanding job in the world.

It’s a test Biden decidedly failed last week in Atlanta, Georgia, after his halting delivery and stumbling answers during the debate with Trump sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party donors for Biden to step aside as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

This week, three House Democrats publicly called on Biden to step aside from his re-election bid, while more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress and governors publicly raised serious concerns about whether Biden could continue as the party’s standard-bearer.

Facing a slew of red flags in post-debate public opinion polls and a growing chorus of prominent Democrats urging the president to quickly decide whether he can successfully continue his campaign, the next few days could potentially make or break Biden.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this update.

Posted by Chris Pandolfo Share

1 hour(s) ago

Biden relies on staff to ‘nudge’ him with reminders for meetings, Axios reports

US President Joe Biden during an operational briefing at the DC Emergency Operations Center in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

An Axios report that details how White House aidesare “miserable” as Democratic Party influencers call on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race revealed new details into the protective cocoon around the 81-year-old chief executive.

Officials quoted in the report said Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, the first lady’s close adviser Anthony Bernal, and longtime aide Ashley Williams have been assisting Biden when he has a mental lapse. 

Once dismissed as normal lapses for any president, now longtime aides wonder if the president’s staff has been hiding the severity of his mental decline from voters.

“Annie, Ashley and Anthony create a protective bubble around POTUS. He’s staffed so closely that he’s lost all independence,” a former Biden aide told Axios. “POTUS relies on staff to nudge him with reminders of who he’s meeting, including former staffers and advisers who Biden should easily remember without a reminder from Annie.”

In a statement, White House spokesman Andrew Bates pushed back on the claims.

“These are standard processes for any White House, regardless of president or party. The claims about these individuals — whose professionalism and character are respected across the administration — are inaccurate,” Bates said. 

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1 hour(s) ago

Chad Pergram: Some Democrats believe it’s ‘too messy’ to ‘ditch’ Biden at this point

Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports that while many Democrats are afraid President Biden could hurt the party down ballot, many still believe it would be too messy to abandon Biden.

So far, just two House Democrats have officially called on Biden to exit the race. They are Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.

“I’m going to support [Biden], but I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere … What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility of keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race,” Grijalva said Wednesday. 

There are multiple letters circulating among Democratic lawmakers that would call for Biden to step aside in favor of another, likely younger candidate.

Efforts have included both vulnerable Democrats in swing districts and left-wing lawmakers in safe seats, sources told Fox News Digital.

“Everyone is guarded now,” one senior House Democratic member told Fox News. “People may be just doing what they believe is best for them.”

Posted by Chris Pandolfo Share

1 hour(s) ago

CNN media analyst says Biden’s upcoming ABC interview not ‘enough’

Axios senior media reporter Sara Fischer, a CNN senior media analyst, argued on the network Thursday that President Biden’s upcoming ABC interview won’t be enough to fix his reputation with the American people following last week’s debate.

Biden’s performance in the CNN Presidential Debate has sent some in the Democratic Party into a panic about his chances in November against former President Trump. The president’s appearance and gaffes fueled continued national furor about his ability to serve, leading many of his staunchest supporters to ask him to either step down or prove he has the ability to lead.

While Biden will be giving a post-debate interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday, Fischer argued that much more must be done if he wants to reassure voters.

“So one of the things that the president is trying to argue is ‘Don‘t look at this 90 minute debate. Look at my 3.5 years,’” Fischer said. “Well, the challenge also works on the flipside, if you don‘t want us to believe what we saw, then give us multiple examples of you being able to do a live, unscripted interview, so we can see that this was just a one-off, if that‘s what you claim.”

The reporter then argued specifically why Biden’s widely anticipated interview with Stephanopoulos won’t satisfy the American public.

“So, the challenge that they now face is the ABC News interview isn‘t gonna be enough. They‘re going to have to show and demonstrate that he can do this, repeatedly, and by the way, in an unscripted format,” Fischer said. “I can‘t stress that enough.” 

Fox News Digital’s Alexander Hall contributed to this update.