Biden hits campaign trail as Democrats fret about his candidacy

U.S. President Joe Biden visited the political battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, pressing his case for reelection even as some fellow Democrats said he must quickly show that he has the mental acuity and physical stamina to carry out a winning campaign to defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election.

Biden, 81, visited a Black church in Philadelphia, joking with 300 congregants about his age, saying that although he may look like he’s “40 years old,” he’s “been around a long time.”

He said his goal is to “unite America again. I honest to God have never been more optimistic about America’s future … if we stick together. We have to bring dignity and hope back in America.”

Later, Biden was headed with first lady Jill Biden to a local union hall in Harrisburg, the state capital of Pennsylvania, a must-win state for both Biden and Trump in the November 5 election.

Biden has vowed to continue his campaign after a halting performance at his June 27 debate with Trump in which Biden at times lost his train of thought and was unable to mount a sustained attack on the Republican presidential nominee or consistently defend his three-and-a-half-year tenure in office.

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As a result, numerous Democrats are questioning — many privately and some publicly — whether Biden has the capacity to beat Trump for a second time after narrowly defeating him in the 2020 election. While Biden was steady during a Friday night interview on ABC News, it did not quell anxiety about his candidacy among fellow Democrats.

Five Democrats in the House of Representatives have called for Biden to step aside, and numerous Democrats have suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris would prove to be a more formidable presidential candidate against Trump, who is the Republican standard bearer for the third straight election cycle.

Sunday news talk shows displayed the angst that many Democrats are feeling about Biden’s candidacy as Trump has pulled ahead in national polls to reclaim the presidency for another four-year term starting in January 2025.

House lawmaker Adam Schiff, a Democratic Senate candidate in California in the November election, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show, “Ultimately, this is a decision President Biden is going to have to make and President Biden alone.”

“But I would say this, he has been an extraordinary president,” Schiff said. “He has created millions and millions of jobs. He has expanded and strengthened our NATO alliances. He has brought back manufacturing to this country. He has brought about the most aggressive attack on climate change. He’s done more in one term than most presidents ever do, no matter how many terms they get.”

“And he’s running against someone who’s a pathological liar, someone who ran the country into the ground by his mishandling of a deadly pandemic. Someone who is a pathological — not only a pathological liar, but is immoral, indecent, unfit for office,” Schiff argued.

Still, Schiff added that Biden’s “performance on the debate stage, I think, rightfully raised questions among the American people about whether the president has the vigor to defeat Donald Trump. It should not be even close. And there’s only one reason it is close, and that’s the president’s age.”

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Biden supporter, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show, “This week is going to be really critical,” as the president hosts a meeting of NATO, the West’s main military alliance, in Washington and holds a rare news conference Thursday.

Murphy described Biden as “one of the best person-to-person politicians this country has seen, but the question is whether that is still the case. There is a lot of anxiety in the country and party.”

Longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod told another CNN show, “Inside Politics,” that Biden is “dangerously out of touch” with his falling standing in the race against Trump.

Axelrod said Biden has often beaten personal and political odds in a five-decade career in public life, but “what he can’t beat is Father Time. He’s not winning this race. It’s more likely he’ll lose by a landslide than win narrowly.”

Biden has remained adamant he will stay in the race, telling ABC News in the Friday interview, “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. But the Lord Almighty is not coming down.”

By Ken Bredemeier