‘Staying in race’: Aides stick to message as stunning report suggests Biden about to quit

MILWAUKEE — President Joe Biden’s campaign is “not working through any scenario” where the president quits the 2024 election and yields to Vice President Kamala Harris, a top campaign official said this morning.

The denial came minutes before a bombshell report claimed senior Democrats believe the president will step down as soon as this weekend.

Biden “is and will be the Democratic nominee,” said Quentin Fulks, Biden's principal deputy campaign manager. “He is staying in this race … He is not wavering on anything. Joe Biden has said he is running for president of the United States.”

Speaking outside the Republican National Convention, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) said he “couldn’t disagree more” with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who is all but assured to become California’s second U.S. senator — and who this week joined a growing chorus of Democrats who have called for Biden, 81, to leave the presidential race.

Biden is “committed to the campaign,” Padilla said. “He’s committed to winning in November.”

Acknowledging growing divisions in the Democratic Party over Biden’s future, Padilla added: “We’re Democrats, so of course there will be a little diversity in what Democrats are thinking and feeling.”

Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) agreed that Democrats are “having some family discussions,” but “I’m comfortable that we’ll work through it."

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A slew of new and high-profile Democrats have this week questioned whether Biden has the physical and mental stamina to win the 2024 election and serve another four-year term, during which he would be 86 years old upon leaving office in 2029.

Other Democrats have outrightly asked Biden to stand down from reelection prior to the Democratic National Convention, slated to be conducted during the third week of August in Chicago, and allow another Democrat to take his place.

A new poll commissioned by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that nearly two-thirds of Democrats throughout the country also believe Biden should not face Trump in the November election — in favor of another Democrat.

The Democratic Party is presently planning to conduct a virtual nominating vote for the Biden-Harris ticket, to take place after Aug. 1, but before the Democratic National Convention formally kicks off on Aug. 19.

Of particular concern to some Democratic lawmakers and influencers: The drag they perceive Biden may have on down-ballot races, particularly in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, where both Republicans and Democrats have a fighting chance of winning a majority.

Compounding matters for Biden this week is a COVID-19 diagnosis, which has taken him off the campaign trail for the immediate future. Biden is convalescing at his beach home in Delaware.

“The president is feeling fine. He’s continuing to make calls and do work,” Fulks said.

Biden’s ongoing troubles come as former President Donald Trump is preparing to deliver his 2024 Republican presidential nomination speech tonight in Milwaukee after one of the more turbulent weeks in recent American history.

It was only Saturday when Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump, his wounded ear bandaged, has attended Republican National Convention sessions each night this week, having named Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) his vice presidential running mate.

Pro-Biden Democrats on Thursday described the Republican National Convention as overwhelming evidence that a second Trump presidency would usher in an era of corruption, authoritarianism and anti-democratic policies.

They reserved their harshest criticism Thursday for Project 2025, a Trump presidential transition policy playbook, spearheaded by the conservative Heritage Foundation, that Democrats argue would end American freedoms as the nation knows them.

Republicans want to “give Trump virtually unlimited power” and “Trump is seeking to build a government of, for and by himself and his loyalists,” Padilla said.

Democrats stand in the way, Padilla said, and “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are ready to lead that fight.”

Vowed Beatty: “We’re going to make America great again, and we’re going to do it by defeating Donald Trump.”