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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Joe Biden is heading into a make-or-break weekend for his re-election campaign, as the US president tries to defy growing pressure to drop out of the White House race against Donald Trump.
Biden is travelling to the swing state of Wisconsin on Friday for a campaign event, one of his first big public events since his disastrous performance in last week’s debate with Donald Trump sparked panic in the Democratic party.
He is scheduled to sit down for his first television interview since the debate, in a one-on-one conversation that will air on ABC News on Friday in primetime. The president’s re-election campaign has also announced a $50mn ad blitz to run across the battleground states this month.
On Sunday, Biden will make a campaign stop in another swing state, Pennsylvania. The trip through critical states comes as Biden battles to quell deep discontent in his party about his determination to stay in the race. Despite Democratic state governors publicly voicing support for Biden this week, scores of lawmakers, party operatives and influential donors are now agitating for him to be replaced with a younger candidate.
The pre-recorded interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, a former adviser to Democratic president Bill Clinton, is being billed as a chance for the president to allay concerns about his mental acuity.
Some donors have pushed California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to replace the president as the Democratic candidate, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Vice-president Kamala Harris is in pole position to replace Biden if he drops out.
A handful of Democratic lawmakers have come out publicly in recent days calling for Biden to end his re-election bid. An increasing number of megadonors — including media heiress Abigail Disney and Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel — have said they will not give Biden any more money.
Biden has also been weakened by damaging public opinion polls that show him trailing Trump by several points both nationwide and in the battleground states that are likely to determine the outcome of November’s election.
Republicans and other opponents of the president seized on another verbal slip-up on Thursday, when he said in a radio interview that he was “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president”.
But Biden and his campaign have refused to blink in the face of the pressure. Boarding Air Force One on Friday, Biden was asked by a reporter whether he could still beat Trump. The president replied: “yes”.
His campaign on Friday said it would spend another $50mn on advertising in the month of July, including for ad spots that would run during this month’s Republican National Convention and the Olympics.
Harris, Newsom and Whitmer have remained publicly loyal to the president’s campaign. At a July 4 celebration at the White House on Thursday evening, Biden joined hands with his vice-president as some people in the crowd chanted, “four more years!”
But other prominent Democrats are more reluctant to share the stage with the president. When Biden visits Wisconsin on Friday, he will be joined by the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers — but not Tammy Baldwin, the state’s Democratic US senator, who is polling far ahead of the president.
The latest FiveThirtyEight polling average shows Trump leading Biden by just shy of two points in Wisconsin.
Trump has kept a relatively low profile since the debate, allowing media attention to remain on Biden’s difficulties and Democratic disarray.
But the former president has slammed Harris in recent days, and on Thursday night challenged Biden to another “no holds barred” debate. A second debate between them is already scheduled for September.
“What a great evening it would be, just the two of us, one on one, in a good, old fashioned debate, the way they used to be,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE!!!”