Many Democrats privately expected a possible surge in defections on Friday and were closely watching how many opponents would come forward, both Biden’s supporters and those who say he should drop out of the race. Some in the party were waiting for the conclusion of the NATO summit in Washington, while others were holding off on their attacks until the press conference.
But other Democrats who had previously been critical of Biden praised his clear understanding of foreign policy and the global economy. The mixed reactions suggest the next 24 to 48 hours could be crucial in determining Biden’s political future, adding further drama to the president’s performance in Michigan on Friday.
Hours before the press conference, four more Democratic congressmen had called on Biden to resign and expressed concern that he would have a hard time beating Republican front-runner Donald Trump because voters were concerned about his age. Biden is 81 and Trump is 78, but polls suggest voters are significantly more concerned about Biden’s ability to run than Trump’s.
Biden began the Q&A session by touting his record with NATO and as president, implicitly defending his continued candidacy, but then mistakenly referred to Vice President Harris as “President Trump” early on, drawing audible surprise and frustration from already-tense Democrats.
But Biden also gave long, complex answers to a range of foreign policy questions and made a strong case that he is the best person to defeat Trump and lead the country. Still, given many Democrats’ view that Trump poses an existential threat to American democracy, they may not want to take that risk.
Democrats are hotly debating whether Biden should remain the presidential nominee after long-simmering concerns about his mental and physical health surfaced during a June 27 debate when he stumbled and sometimes struggled to complete sentences. So far, Biden has remained undeterred by growing calls from his party for him to drop out of the race.
The president’s Michigan visit may highlight another key political weakness that has dogged his campaign long before the June debate: Arab Americans, Muslims and liberals infuriated by his handling of Israel’s Gaza war, many of whom have said they will abstain from voting because he has not called for a permanent ceasefire or ended U.S. military aid to Israel.
More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip over the past nine months. Israel launched a severe military offensive in the Strip on October 7 after Hamas fighters crossed the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
Michigan is the nation’s largest state with an Arab American population of about 300,000 people of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Michigan’s Arab and Muslim communities overwhelmingly supported Biden in the 2020 election, when he won the state by 154,000 votes.
Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, a city with a majority Arab-American population, said he hasn’t spoken to White House officials in months about his constituents’ concerns about the war in Gaza. Though Gaza has disappeared from news headlines in recent weeks, the situation there continues to worsen and residents haven’t lost interest in the issue, Hammoud said.
“Earlier this year, the president sent senior White House officials to listen to the constituencies he supported four years ago, but since then, no meaningful steps have been taken. We’ve only seen a setback,” Hammoud said, referring to a Feb. 8 meeting when top national security officials traveled to Dearborn and met with the mayor and other officials.
“We want a president who has the courage to call for a ceasefire,” Hammoud added. “This is not the president that was promised to us four years ago.”
Most polls show Biden trailing Trump in Michigan, a key factor narrowing the president’s path to victory. Without it, Biden has few paths to victory.
In a memo obtained by The Washington Post on Thursday, the Biden campaign argued that they could win by focusing on the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
