With a clenched fist Biden vehemently sticks to his candidacy
Four years ago, Joe Biden said in Detroit that he saw himself as a bridge for the next generation of leading Democrats. However, many of his party colleagues are urging him to keep the promise he made back then. Now Biden is back in Detroit - and is proving combative.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- US President Joe Biden continues to vehemently defend himself against doubts about his mental fitness.
- at a fiery campaign appearance in Detroit in front of Donald Trump and his "Project 2025".
- "Americans want a president, not a dictator," Biden said to great applause.
US President Joe Biden has rejected increasing calls from his party for him to withdraw from the race for the White House during a fiery campaign appearance in Detroit. He was "far from finished", Biden shouted on Friday evening (local time) at a high school in the large city in the state of Michigan. It was the same school where Biden had presented himself as a presidential candidate in the last election campaign four years ago as a "bridge" for the next generation of Democratic leaders. In the wake of his disastrous performance in the TV duel with his challenger Donald Trump around two weeks ago,many party colleagues are now calling on him to keep his promise from back then - and step aside.
At Renaissance High School, however, Biden once again made it clear that he would remain in the race. "You made me the nominee, nobody else - not the press, not the strategists, not the insiders, not the donors," he shouted. "You, the voters. You made the decision. No one else. And I'm not going anywhere." Again and again, the Democrat clenched his fist to demonstrate his determination.
"Don't give up!"
Biden was harsh on the media. The journalists only focused on his mistakes, not those of Trump, he complained. The crowd then booed reporters present in the room, which Biden tried to stop. In general, the president had the audience in the high school on his side. "Don't give up!" and "We've got your back", chanted the crowd.
When the audience repeatedly chanted "Lock him up!" in reference to Trump and his guilty verdict in the case concerning hush money payments to a porn actress during the 2016 election campaign, Biden smiled. Trump himself has repeatedly encouraged his supporters to use such slogans at his rallies.
Biden warns against Trump's "Project 2025"
In Detroit, Biden repeatedly warned of a possible return of Trump to the White House. The incumbent sharply criticized the so-called "Project 2025", a proposal submitted under the leadership of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation for drastic cuts to federal programs and ministries in the event of a Republican Trump election victory in November. Trump claims to know nothing about such reform plans.
Biden accused Trump of pretending to be clueless for purely electoral reasons. In a similar way, Trump is now trying to distance himself from the US Supreme Court's decision in the summer of 2022 to overturn the landmark ruling on abortion rights - "because he knows it's toxic", said Biden. But this would not be allowed to happen.
Since the TV debacle two weeks ago, Biden and his team have been trying to convince nervous congressmen and donors that the failed debate against Trump was just a blip, with appearances in battleground US states, interviews and a solo press conference at the end of the Nato summit this week. But the doubts in his party about the 81-year-old's mental freshness have not changed. So far, one senator and almost 20 Democratic members of the House of Representatives have publicly called for Biden's withdrawal.
