In a new interview, President Joe Biden offered what could be an escape route from a campaign many Democrats want him to abandon.
Biden’s woeful performance in the June debate against former President Donald Trump ignited calls for him to abandon the campaign as Democrats attacked Biden insiders who they believed were providing a false image of Biden’s competence.
Biden has responded to calls from fellow Democrats with asperity, at one point claiming it would take the “Lord almighty” to convince him to abandon the campaign for a second term.
But a different answer emerged when asked by Ed Gordon of BET News if anything might change his decision, according to The New York Times.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said in an excerpt BET shared.
Biden said he “made a serious mistake in the whole debate.”
He said he would reconsider his campaign if doctors changed what has been their positive assessment of his fitness for the office of the president.
Biden noted that among the words that flowed from his 2020 campaign was talk of being a candidate who would unify the nation and set the stage for new leaders.
“You may remember Ed, I said I was going to be a transitional candidate, and I thought I would be able to move on from this and pass it on to somebody else,” Biden said.
Will Biden drop out before the election?
“But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. And quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings is a little bit of wisdom,” he said.
Biden also insisted his record showed he deserves another term.
“I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country in spite of the fact that we were told we couldn’t get it done,” he said.
“But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that,” he added.
Others in the Democratic party are pushing the incumbent to do just that.
On Wednesday, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California called on Biden to quit, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Schiff, an arch-nemesis of Trump, said “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Schiff called on Biden “to pass the torch” and “secure his legacy of leadership” by giving another Democrat a shot at Trump.
Also on Wednesday, Democrats who had been calling for a virtual nomination process that would confirm Biden’s place at the top of the ticket said they will push back their plans for a vote by a week, according to The New York Times.
Amid the uncertainty, one group knows what it wants. Many major Democratic donors have turned off the spigot unless Democrats advocate for a different candidate.
“It’s a message that I’ve encouraged my friends to send as well,” mega-donor Tom Strickland said, according to The New York Times. “If you back Biden, you will lose our support. Over and out.”
