WASHINGTON — President Biden again read carefully from teleprompters Tuesday while discussing extreme weather and took no questions on his political fate — after the first elected Democrat in Congress urged him to step aside following his disastrous Thursday debate against former President Donald Trump.
The 81-year-old president spoke for 10 minutes at Washington, DC’s local Emergency Operations Center shortly after Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) called on Biden to step aside to prevent Trump, 78, from retaking the White House.
“Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined,” Biden said after arriving about 40 minutes late to the facility.
President Biden again read carefully from teleprompters Tuesday while discussing extreme weather and took no questions on his political fate. AFP via Getty Images
Biden ignored reporter questions about calls for him to pull out of his re-election campaign. REUTERS
He ignored a reporter’s question about Doggett.
Biden similarly gave a 4-1/2 minute speech Monday night and also took no press questions.
Although he largely avoided stumbles, Biden at one point misread his script to declare “the first ever White House summer [sic] on extreme heat” when he meant to say summit — drawing ridicule on social media.
He also mentioned Hurricane Beryl, the Category 5 storm in the Caribbean that’s on a projected course toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
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“Everyone who willfully denies the impacts of climate change is condemning the American people to a dangerous future and either is really, really dumb or has some other motive,” Biden said.
Doggett’s on-the-record call for Biden to allow Democrats to pick another nominee ahead of the Nov. 5 election followed days of party insiders saying privately that a swap was needed to prevent a potential Trump landslide victory.
Biden repeatedly appeared confused, lost his train of thought and made undecipherable remarks such as “we finally beat Medicare” during his debate with Trump — stoking panic among allies.
Biden spoke for 10 minutes at Washington, DC’s local Emergency Operations Center shortly after Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) called on him to step aside. REUTERS
“Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined,” Biden said after arriving about 40 minutes late to the facility. AP
What to know about the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance:
President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate has left even some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
Former President Obama admitted that Biden had a “bad” debate, while his rival former President Trump suggested that he was in a “trance” and “choked.”
Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
Biden gathered with his family to assess the campaign’s future at Camp David, with his son Hunter reportedly pushing for him to stay in the race. Family members questioned if the president’s top advisors should be fired after the disastrous debate.
Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein revealed that sources close to Biden have witnessed as many as 20 episodes of cognitive decline in the past year.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) became the first House Democrat to call on Biden to drop out.
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson,” Doggett said Tuesday.
“Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same.”
The Democratic National Committee currently plans to electronically nominate Biden as the party’s presidential candidate by Aug. 7 to comply with an Ohio ballot access deadline — leaving just over a month for skeptics to persuade Biden to go despite winning this year’s state primaries and caucuses.
