US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday (17) that the only situation in which he would consider giving up on seeking re-election would be if doctors warned him that he had a serious “medical condition” that would make him unable to exercise the presidency.
Biden made the statement in an interview with the pay-TV channel BET News. “If I had any medical condition that came up, if someone — if doctors came to me and said, ‘You have this problem, that problem.’ But I made a serious mistake during the entire debate,” Biden said.
Since his poor performance in the debate against Trump on the 27th, which increased speculation about his mental health, Biden has been under pressure from campaign donors, media outlets and fellow Democrats to drop out of the race. However, for now, he says he will remain in the fight for reelection.
Last week, at a press conference in Washington, Biden said he had recently undergone three extensive neurological exams, which showed he was “in good shape” and that he was being monitored by “good doctors.” “If one of them says I need to do another neurological test, I will do it,” he said at the time.
The Democratic president has been reaffirming that he remains his party’s best option to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the November election.
In the interview with BET News, he explained why he changed his mind and decided to seek another term, after being named during the 2020 presidential campaign as a “transition candidate” for the Democrats – that is, he would pave the way for someone younger in 2024.
“When I first ran, you may remember, I said I would be a transitional candidate. And I thought I would be able to get through [o posto de candidato democrata] to someone else. But I didn’t foresee things getting so divided [na política e na sociedade americanas]”, said the president.
A survey conducted by the NORC institute, commissioned by the Associated Press, showed that 70% of the adult population of the United States believe that Biden should withdraw from the re-election campaign and make way for the Democratic Party to nominate another candidate for the presidential election on November 5.
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