Joe Biden set to face world’s media as crisis engulfs Democratic party

Unlock the US Election Countdown newsletter for free

The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Joe Biden is set to field questions from reporters in a highly anticipated press conference on Thursday evening, a make-or-break moment for the US president as he seeks to reassure his own party that he is fit to take on Donald Trump.

The press conference, scheduled to take place at the end of this week’s Nato summit in Washington, will be a rare forum for Biden, who has held far fewer press conferences as president than any of his modern predecessors.

But it comes as a crisis over Biden’s candidacy engulfs the Democratic party, and the White House and the president’s re-election campaign struggle to stem calls from lawmakers, influential donors and party operatives for him to step aside.

Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s leader in the House, told reporters on Thursday that he intended to speak with each of the more than 200 House Democrats before talking with his top team to plot a path forward.

“Throughout this week, as House Democrats, we have engaged in a process of talking to each other. Those conversations have been candid, comprehensive and clear eyed, and they continue,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries has confronted growing calls from within his caucus for the 81-year-old Biden to step aside as concerns mount that the president is ill-equipped to beat Donald Trump in November and serve another four years in the White House.

On Thursday, Michigan lawmaker Hillary Scholten became the latest Democrat in Congress to call on Biden to end his campaign.

“For the good of our democracy, I believe it is time for him to step aside from the presidential race and allow a new leader to stand up,” Scholten said.

New York congressman Ritchie Torres stopped short of explicitly telling Biden to step down on Thursday, but wrote on X: “The narrative that the president simply had one bad debate performance reflects a continuing pattern of denial and self-delusion.”

More than a dozen lawmakers have so far explicitly called on Biden to step aside, while many others have signalled their concerns about his candidacy.

On Wednesday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Biden needed to make a decision on his future “quickly”, while actor George Clooney, a big Hollywood Democratic backer and donor, called on the president to drop out of the race too.

Have your say

Joe Biden vs Donald Trump: tell us how the 2024 US election will affect you

Many lawmakers are also concerned that Biden could weigh on congressional races and kill the Democratic party’s chance of taking back control of the House.

But Jeffries on Thursday insisted he remained bullish on the party’s chances at the ballot box, and his own chances of becoming the next Speaker of the House, saying: “House Democrats will win back control of the House of Representatives on November 5.”

Democratic donors told the Financial Times on Wednesday that funding for the party’s election campaign was now “drying up” because Biden remained on the ticket.

“We have yet to talk to anybody in the Senate, on the donor-side, or the House of Representatives that wouldn’t love to see another candidate,” said Democratic donor and investor Jeff Walker, a member of the Leadership Now Project that has called for Biden to end his campaign.

Lawmakers’ growing concerns come nearly two weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump sparked panic across the Democratic party, as influential donors and party operatives fretted that the president was not fit for a re-election campaign and another four-year term.

The White House and the Biden campaign have insisted that the president is committed to his re-election bid, defeating Trump and serving another term in the Oval Office.

Additional reporting by Alex Rogers in Washington