President Biden is now declaring he would leave the 2024 race for the White House if polls showed there was “no way” he could win, after only a week ago saying it would take the “Lord Almighty” for him to drop out.
The 81-year-old president is facing mounting calls to step aside from members of his own party amid concerns he does not have the physical or mental strength to beat former President Trump nor carry out another four-year term.
Biden took questions from reporters in an hourlong press conference Thursday night as he sought to allay those concerns. The event came on the heels of Washington, D.C.’s NATO summit, though the media’s questions largely focused on Biden’s re-election.
One reporter asked the president whether he would reconsider staying in the race if his own team presented data showing Vice President Kamala Harris doing better against Trump than himself.
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“No,” Biden said. “Unless they came back and said, there’s no way you can win. Me.”
The president added in his trademark whisper, “There’s no one saying that. No poll says that.”
Nearly a week ago last Friday, however, he told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos that his political fate was up to deities rather than data.
Per the network’s unedited transcript of the interview, Biden said, when asked whether he would drop out if he was convinced by allies that he could not beat Trump, “It depends on- on if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that, I might do that.”
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When pressed again, he insisted, “Look. I mean, if the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get outta the race,’ I’d get outta the race. The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.
A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Friday morning shows Biden two points ahead of Trump in a head-to-head rematch, though Trump is one percentage point above Biden when factoring in third-party options. Both results fell within the survey’s 3.1% margin of error.
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Several of Biden’s supporters lauded his press conference performance Thursday night, arguing he showed a commanding and clear sense of foreign policy experience. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I think he convinced a lot of people he should stay in the race.”
For others, however, it was too late. Three more House Democrats called on Biden to step aside after the press conference, including Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House permanent select committee on Intelligence.
As of Friday morning, there are 20 Congressional Democrats who have publicly called on Biden to drop out.
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