Joe Biden will never step aside for this year’s presidential election, according to his campaign chief.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” the former mayor of New Orleans turned Biden campaign chief Mitch Landrieu was asked by host Kristen Welker about recent speculation around the president’s mental and physical capacity to hold office.
“Our NBC news poll found that 76% of voters are concerned about whether the president has the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term,” she asked. “What is the plan to convince voters otherwise?”
Landrieu said:
President Trump, just the other night, confused what day of the week it was. He is confused who the leader of North Korea and China are. He’s confused the leaders of Hungary and Turkey, by the way. Speaker Mike Johnson was on the other day and he confused Iraq and Iran. And of course, President Trump doesn’t know the difference between Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley.
Speculation about Biden’s future has been rife this week after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. The report found that although Biden had likely committed a crime, his declining mental condition meant that bringing charges against him would not be in the public interest.
As such, Welker followed up by asking how Landrieu would respond to the growing number of Democratic Party figures who have called on Biden to step aside and allow someone else to take his place:
I’m in the process of doing it right now. And demonstrating that the president’s accomplishments have really been second to none, and Joe Biden’s going to get up every day. The one thing Joe Biden is never going to do is — count on this — he is never, ever going to quit. Because that’s not what he’s done his entire life.
In order to replace Biden, Democrats would obviously have to find another candidate. One name that has repeatedly been mentioned is Michelle Obama.
However, that possibility was dismissed by Barack Obama’s former strategist and senior adviser, David Axelrod, who pointed out that the former First Lady does not enjoy politics:
So she is not someone who likes politics, she doesn’t like the tone and tenor of politics and I would be floored if she would consent to that… I always say I have more chance of dancing in the Bolshoi Ballet as next year than she would be president of the United States.
Biden, meanwhile, insisted during a disastrous press conference on Thursday that his memory is “fine” and that the report’s findings were wrong:
I know there’s some attention paid to some language in the report about my recollection of events. There’s even a reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?
…
I am well-meaning, and I’m an elderly man, and I know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve been President. I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.
However, Biden quickly undermined his claim of mental sharpness when he confused Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi with the president of Mexico.
