A fuming President Joe Biden called into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday to declare that he will not withdraw his bid for a second term, despite growing calls for him to step down.
Trump is “a liar,” Biden said. “And he hasn’t done a damn thing since the debate. He’s been riding around a golf cart for 10 days down in Mar-a-Lago with his wealthy friends.”
“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites in the party,” he added. “I don’t care what the millionaires think.”
In a fighting statement after days of bleeding support, Biden threw down the gauntlet to Democrats calling for him to quit. “If any of these guys don’t think I should run, run against me. Go ahead. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention,” he said.
The furious call came just minutes after Biden published a two-page letter to the five members of the House who have openly called for him to go, challenging the doubters to take him on in a floor fight at the party’s convention.
He wrote that he had “heard the concerns that people have” but brushed them aside, adding that he had also heard “rock-solid, steadfast support from so many elected Democrats in Congress and all across the country.”
“We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively,” he said.
He mocked his three primary opponents for their failure to defeat him—but the main message was that he has the delegates and will not give them up.
“The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party. Do we now just say this process didn’t matter? That the voters don’t have a say?”
The aggressive invitation to be challenged marks a strategic pivot for Biden on a day when Congress returns to Capitol Hill, allowing plotters to meet in person for the first time. Anxiety is running high in the Democratic Party as lawmakers and some of Biden’s allies call for the president to step down, and on Sunday, some 15 top House committee members privately agreed the president should step aside. However, Biden wrote in his letter, “I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024,” refusing to remove himself from the ballot for the sake of his party.
Instead, Biden called for the Democratic Party to focus its attention on moving forward from the debate and for them to band together to beat Trump. “Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump,” he concluded.
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