Is Biden 'reluctant to step down' fearing it will 'create chaos, disorder within the Democratic Party'?
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00:00Joe Biden's political future is overshadowing the NATO summit that's on now in Washington.
00:08Concerns about the president's fitness for a second term in office and his ability to
00:12beat Donald Trump have been swirling ever since last month's disastrous debate performance.
00:18More and more Democrats are publicly now saying Joe Biden has to step aside, including celebrity
00:23donor George Clooney and the first Democratic senator to speak out, Peter Welch.
00:28Kate Hughes has the details.
00:32He's the first Democratic senator to publicly call on Joe Biden to abandon his re-election
00:37bid as concerns mount over the president's age and fitness.
00:42In an op-ed for the Washington Post published on Wednesday, Vermont Senator Peter Welch
00:46said he respected Biden but raised doubts about his re-election prospects, citing his
00:51stumbling debate performance against Donald Trump.
00:54The stakes could not be higher.
00:56We cannot unsee President Biden's disastrous debate performance.
01:00We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night.
01:05He saved us from Donald Trump once and wants to do it again, but he needs to reassess whether
01:09he is the best candidate to do so.
01:11In my view, he is not.
01:13For the good of the country, I'm calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race.
01:18Welch joins a handful of Democrats in Congress who have urged Biden to drop out, with the
01:22rest so far being in the House.
01:25In an interview with MSNBC the same day, Nancy Pelosi stopped short of saying definitively
01:30that she wanted him to remain in the race and called on him to make a decision about
01:34his candidacy.
01:35It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run.
01:40We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.
01:48Biden is also facing pressure from prominent figures outside the political world.
01:52In a bruising opinion piece for the New York Times, Hollywood star and Democratic fundraiser
01:57George Clooney implored him to quit the race, claiming he was not the same man he was in
02:022020.
02:04Biden has brushed off his debate against Trump as a bad night and, in a letter to congressional
02:09Democrats earlier this week, told lawmakers he was firmly committed to his re-election
02:13campaign.
02:15All eyes will be on the president on Thursday as he is set to hold a solo news conference
02:19following a NATO summit.
02:22After the debate, any stumbles at the conference could hasten more calls for him to drop his
02:26re-election bid.
02:27We're going to talk about this more now with US politics expert Thomas Gift who joins me
02:32live from Washington.
02:34Thomas, thanks for taking the time to speak to us.
02:37More and more Democrats now saying Biden should step down.
02:40What do you think about, first of all, people like George Clooney weighing in like this
02:45to tell him to stop?
02:46Well, thanks so much for having me.
02:48It's great to be with you.
02:49I am somewhat surprised that individuals like George Clooney and even some Congress members
02:54are coming out as clearly as they are.
02:58They obviously feel that Joe Biden is not the person to beat Donald Trump, especially
03:03as Donald Trump's poll numbers continue to rise.
03:06But, you know, Democrats and Biden allies are really in a tough position because they
03:11do want to signal subtly or not subtly to Biden that he should step down from the race.
03:16But at the same time, they know that he may not change his mind.
03:19And if that's the case, they have to provide a united front against Trump.
03:24Is there any chance that these comments from Clooney, Nancy Pelosi, who didn't directly
03:30call for him to step out, but who said he should think about it and make his decision,
03:34Senator Welch, for example, is there any way that their comments could be coordinated
03:38in any way?
03:39I mean, I know one U.S. paper this morning is reporting that George Clooney ran the op-ed
03:42by Barack Obama before it was published.
03:45I have heard some speculation about this.
03:48There's a fine line, I guess, between what's coordinated and what's not coordinated.
03:53Am I surprised or would I be surprised that others besides George Clooney knew that this
03:58op-ed was going to be published?
04:00No.
04:01But at the same time, you know, lots of conversations and discussions are happening in private that
04:07probably don't necessarily reflect what all of these representatives are willing to say
04:12in public.
04:13So I think there's a lot of conversation, a lot of chatter about how best to signal
04:18this to Biden.
04:19But I don't know if I would say that these were explicitly coordinated.
04:23So today there's going to be this solo press conference that Joe Biden will be giving at
04:27the NATO summit.
04:28How much is Biden's political career really riding on this one performance today?
04:33Well, it seems like every performance now is a make or break for Biden.
04:38First you have the debate.
04:39Then you have the ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos.
04:41And now you have this press conference.
04:43It almost seems like every successive event that Biden participates in in public between
04:49now and the convention, it's kind of a do or die moment.
04:52But certainly today is a big, big stage.
04:57He's doing it in front of NATO.
04:59And any hiccups, any garbled language, any incoherent statements, they're going to be
05:05magnified under this microscope.
05:07And certainly we've seen many statements by Biden go viral, suggesting that maybe he isn't
05:12compus mentis.
05:15You've been observing Biden for many years now.
05:18You obviously saw the debate, this interview you just mentioned with George Stephanopoulos.
05:21I mean, what are your thoughts?
05:23Is Biden fit for office for another four years?
05:26That's a great question.
05:27I don't think that he's the best candidate to beat Donald Trump.
05:30And I don't think that he's the best individual to lead this country, the United States, for
05:36another four years.
05:37I mean, even just the perception that Biden doesn't have all of his mental acuity is a
05:44problem.
05:45You know, this is a huge distraction.
05:47Everything that he does now makes decisions.
05:50People disagree with it.
05:51They're going to say, oh, well, this was because his mental health.
05:54I do think that the White House needs to be much more transparent than they have been.
05:59I also think that if Biden wants to prove to Americans that he is up to the job, then
06:04he needs to show it.
06:05He needs to be in public.
06:06He needs to be taking questions at press conferences.
06:09He needs to be going on adversarial media.
06:11But it really does seem like his team has been shielding him.
06:15And that doesn't inspire confidence among many Americans.
06:1872 percent of voters don't think that Biden has the mental acuity or physical vigor to
06:23run again.
06:25All right.
06:26And it seems like things really kicked off a few weeks ago with that disastrous debate
06:27performance.
06:28I mean, you were mentioning the White House a moment ago.
06:30Do you think that it miscalculated its post-debate spin?
06:33It should have done things differently.
06:35Oh, absolutely.
06:36I think it wasn't just the interview that ended up hurting Biden.
06:40It was how the White House tried to spin this.
06:44And so if you look at all of the excuses that he had a cold, that he had a jet lag 11 days
06:50after he returned to Washington, that he's OK between the hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
06:56these are just not convincing to many Americans.
06:58I don't think that they're serious political arguments.
07:02And so, again, if Biden wants to prove to Americans he can't just sort of give this
07:06litany of justifications or rationales.
07:10He needs to be in front of the public.
07:11Right.
07:12And again, nothing is done yet.
07:14But if he were to step down, I mean, how would that even work logistically?
07:18Is there still time to transfer the money?
07:20I mean, who would even be the candidate at this point, do you think?
07:23Yeah, I mean, that's the big question.
07:25And I think it's one reason why maybe Biden is reluctant to step down, because he thinks
07:29that this is just going to create chaos and disorder within the Democratic Party in the
07:33lead up to the convention in August.
07:35And you know what?
07:36I think he's right about that.
07:37But sometimes you need to have some messiness.
07:41Biden has this nomination for all intents and purposes until he says that he's stepping down.
07:45If he said that he was stepping down, he would release delegates.
07:49These are party elites within the Democratic Party, many of whom are Biden loyalists.
07:55Then they could vote for whoever they wanted.
07:57Obviously, Kamala Harris, Biden's vice president, is at the top of the list.
08:00But there are others that are being discussed, like Maryland Governor Wes Moore, like California
08:06Governor Gavin Newsom, like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
08:10So there'll be a lot of horse trading, I think, and backdoor deals, lobbying for individual
08:15candidates if this is what happened, if Biden got out of the race.
08:18OK, Thomas, thanks for that.
08:19That's Thomas Giff speaking to me from Washington.
08:21Thank you so much.
08:22Thank you.
08:23Now, Joe Biden, of course, going to have that fight of his political life with his first
08:28solo press conference since the debate disaster that he'll be giving today in Washington.
08:33That is going to be a real pressure cooker moment for the president, and we will be broadcasting
08:36it live for you here on France 24.
08:39That is at 11.30 p.m. Paris time.