Joe Biden is increasingly being criticized. Prominent supporters are calling for his resignation. But the US president is responding with a fierce attack. All information in the news blog.
11.34pm: In the ongoing debate about Joe Biden’s US presidential candidacy, Nobel Prize winner in economics Paul Krugman has also called on the Democrat to withdraw his application. In his column for the New York Times newspaper on Monday, Krugman wrote that Biden should “do the right thing”. Although he did an excellent job as incumbent, this was not sufficiently appreciated. However, Biden failed the test of the live debate against Republican Donald Trump. This means that the 81-year-old is politically damaged goods. There is too much at stake, wrote Krugman: If Trump wins, this could be “the last real election” in the USA for a long time.
Statements from Biden and Trump were not immediately available. Krugman joins a list of lawmakers, commentators and celebrities who have called on Biden to withdraw before the election on November 5 after his perceived weak television appearance at the end of June. Biden had rejected this again on Monday before the column was published, saying that he did not care what the “big names” and the “millionaires” thought. It is unclear who would take Biden’s place. Krugman said that at present there appears to be no credible alternative other than Vice President Kamala Harris.
10:05 p.m.: A media report about visits by a Parkinson’s specialist to the White House sparked a heated exchange between the press present and US President Biden’s spokeswoman. “Has the President been treated for Parkinson’s? No. Is he being treated for Parkinson’s? No, he is not. Is he taking medication for Parkinson’s? No,” said spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. At the same time, she called on the journalists present to behave respectfully. There was no reason to question them in this “aggressive manner,” she said at one point to journalist Ed O’Keefe from the US broadcaster CBS.
21:46: In the debate about US President Joe Biden’s physical fitness for a second term, the Democrat is going on the offensive and adopting a confrontational tone towards his party colleagues. At the beginning of the week, the 81-year-old addressed a clear letter to the Democrats in Congress and, in an unusual move, also called in to a live broadcast on US breakfast television.
He told the doubters within his party who had spoken out in favor of an alternative candidate on MSNBC’s morning program: “Go ahead! (…) Challenge me at the party convention!” He also expressed frustration with “know-it-all elites” in his own ranks.
In the letter to the members of Congress from his party, Biden pointed out in a sharp tone that the democratic process cannot simply be thrown out the window after the party’s internal primaries. The letter was made available to CNN and the New York Times, among others.
19:14: The well-known horror writer Stephen King appeals in a tweet to US President Joe Biden not to run again in the next presidential election. King emphasizes that Biden has had a good term in office, but in the interest of the country he should announce that he will not run again. In recent years, King has been a staunch supporter of Biden and an opponent of Donald Trump.
