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      Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Backs Biden: ‘He Is Not Leaving This Race’

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      Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of the most prominent progressives in the Democratic caucus, said late Monday that she stood behind President Biden.“I have spoken to the president over the weekend,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters outside the Capitol. “I have spoken with him extensively. He made clear then and he has made clear since that he is in this race. The matter is closed.”She highlighted his efforts on Monday to reiterate that message. “Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said. “He is not leaving this race, he is in this race, and I support him.”Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said that it was essential for Democrats to turn their focus back to former President Donald J. Trump and what he would do if elected again. She told Mr. Biden to “increasingly commit to the issues that are critically important to working people across this country” — like expanding Medicare and Social Security and making housing more affordable, she said.“What I think is critically important right now is that we focus on what it takes to win in November,” she said. “Because he is running against Donald Trump, who is a man with 34 felony convictions — that has committed 34 felony crimes. And not a single Republican has asked for Donald Trump to not be the nominee.”Members of Congress returned to Washington on Monday after a recess, and Democrats have been meeting and discussing their path forward.While a handful of House Democrats have called for Mr. Biden to step aside since his debate performance last month, he has received politically important support from others, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — and now at least one member of the so-called Squad, a group of progressives of which Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is a part. More

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      Biden Trumpets Small Donors as Rich Backers Retreat

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      In a nationally broadcast interview on Monday, President Biden pushed back on rich Democrats who want him to end his re-election campaign, saying, “I don’t care what the millionaires think.”Small donors, he made clear, were coming through for him.But hours later, Mr. Biden joined a private call with his top donors and fund-raisers to reassure them. “It matters,” he told them of their support.The seemingly contradictory messages show the conundrum facing the president as he grapples with the fallout from his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump last month. In order to continue to fund his presidential campaign, Mr. Biden will most likely need the support of wealthy Democratic Party backers, but they have been among the loudest voices calling for him to end his bid for re-election.In trying to diffuse their opposition, Mr. Biden — a politician who has long relied on the party’s establishment to fund his campaign — has adopted a surprisingly populist anti-elite message that, in some ways, echoes Mr. Trump’s.Major donors are warning that the party will lose the White House and down-ballot races with Mr. Biden atop the ticket. A growing chorus of donors has been pushing — first quietly, then publicly — for him to step aside to allow a replacement nominee and threatening to withhold their cash unless that happens.While Mr. Biden’s campaign has continued to court wealthy Democrats, including working to schedule fund-raising receptions despite uncertain interest, the president has also publicly cast the backlash from major donors as a sign that he is sticking up for regular people against moneyed interests. But polls showing that many rank-and-file Democratic voters also have deep concerns about his age.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Biden Is Leveraging His Defiance to Try to Stem Democratic Defections

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      President Biden’s increasingly emphatic declarations that he will not exit the presidential race are delivering an unmistakable message to potential wayward Democrats: Any criticisms going forward damage the party’s chances against Donald J. Trump.For days, Mr. Biden has said he will remain his party’s nominee after his poor debate short of an intervention from “the Lord Almighty.” On Monday, he put that assertion into action.It began with an open letter to congressional Democrats saying he was definitely running. It continued with a defiant call into one of his favorite cable news shows decrying the “elites” trying to shove him out. It included a midday appearance on a private video call with some of his campaign’s top financiers as well as a call into a virtual meeting on Monday evening with a bulwark of his past support: the Congressional Black Caucus.“I am not going anywhere,” Mr. Biden told the donors.The moves amounted to a show of defiance that the Biden operation hoped would earn him some deference, as uneasy Democratic lawmakers trickled back to Capitol Hill after a holiday break. At the same time, the Biden team was trying to reframe the pressure campaign to get him to step aside as one hatched by the elite party establishment rather than a genuine reflection of grass-roots voter fears about the 81-year-old commander in chief’s age and acuity.“I love this fighting Joe Biden,” said Representative Robert Garcia of California, a Democrat and an outspoken Biden supporter. “When he takes a punch, he’s going to come back and punch harder.”As lawmakers returned to Washington, Mr. Biden received some key words of support, including from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (“He is in this race; the matter is closed”), but also some concerns among influential lawmakers, including Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who is in the Democratic leadership (“We need to see a much more forceful and energetic candidate”).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What Biden Is Doing to Survive as He Faces Calls to Drop Out of Race

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      Eleven days after his disastrous debate performance, the president’s strategy is coming into focus.Good evening. Tonight, we’re taking a look at the strategy behind President Biden’s efforts to steady his candidacy. And I’m covering a new ad campaign from Republicans who want to defeat Trump.The latest developmentsAn expert on Parkinson’s disease visited the White House eight times in eight months, including at least once for a meeting with President Biden’s physician.Biden told his biggest donors he is staying in the presidential race.Jill Biden, the first lady, emphasized to voters in several states that her husband was “all in” on his campaign.A defiant President Biden sent a simple message on Monday to the detractors who say he needs to bow out of the presidential race: Bring it.“Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention,” Biden said while calling into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, all but daring the Democrats who have been complaining about his electability since his disastrous debate performance to stand up and do something about it.Biden has been roundly criticized not just for his halting debate performance but also for moving too slowly to acknowledge and quell the hailstorm of doubts about his fitness to campaign and serve another four years. He is now rolling out a more aggressive playbook to try to shut down talk of his being shoved aside as the Democratic presidential nominee.Biden campaigned in North Carolina the day after his showdown with Donald Trump, but it wasn’t until Friday, eight days after the debate, that he sat for questions about it in a major television interview. He held campaign events in two swing states over the holiday weekend.“Even the president acknowledges that, that there was too much distance between, you know, between the debate and being out there,” said Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, a Democrat, noting the North Carolina stop. “He understands that, in order to be successful, we’re going to have to do that and then some.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      U.S. Creates High-Tech Global Supply Chains to Blunt Risks Tied to China

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      The Biden administration is trying to get foreign companies to invest in chip-making in the United States and more countries to set up factories to do final assembly and packaging.If the Biden administration had its way, far more electronic chips would be made in factories in, say, Texas or Arizona.They would then be shipped to partner countries, like Costa Rica or Vietnam or Kenya, for final assembly and sent out into the world to run everything from refrigerators to supercomputers.Those places may not be the first that come to mind when people think of semiconductors. But administration officials are trying to transform the world’s chip supply chain and are negotiating intensely to do so.The core elements of the plan include getting foreign companies to invest in chip-making in the United States and finding other countries to set up factories to finish the work. Officials and researchers in Washington call it part of the new “chip diplomacy.”The Biden administration argues that producing more of the tiny brains of electronic devices in the United States will help make the country more prosperous and secure. President Biden boasted about his efforts in his interview on Friday with ABC News, during which he said he had gotten South Korea to invest billions of dollars in chip-making in the United States.But a key part of the strategy is unfolding outside America’s borders, where the administration is trying to work with partners to ensure that investments in the United States are more durable.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Joe Biden, in the Goodest Bunker Ever

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      When I saw the Michael Shear story in The Times on July 4, recounting how President Biden had stumbled talking to Black radio hosts days after his debate debacle, telling one he was proud to have been “the first Black woman to serve with a Black president,” I knew it spelled trouble.First of all, if any white man could claim to be “the first Black woman” in the Oval, it was Bill Clinton. Black fans called him “the first Black president” and feminist fans called him “the first woman president.”Second of all, we were entering a new post-debate examination period with President Biden, where his every word would be scrutinized. He was always a fast and voluminous talker, and as he has gotten older, the words and ideas sometimes tumble out in the wrong order. Also, he’s more slurry now, so words get smushed together, and words and thoughts collide; words get dropped, caesuras skipped, and sentences sometimes trail off into the ether.The Times’s chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, told me he has started using the translation headsets on overseas trips, even when he is 20 feet away from the president, because they offer a magnified volume when Biden starts to mumble.The White House press corps, stung by critiques that they did not pull back the curtain enough on the president’s diminished powers, are now on the alert, ready to tear down the Pollyanna scrim erected by Biden’s family and aides.The White House and the Biden campaign are so smotheringly protective that, as news outlets reported, Biden aides helped draft the questions that local radio hosts asked the president in the wake of his calamitous debate.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As Democrats Fret About Biden, Murphy Says He Must Address Voters’ Concerns

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      Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said Sunday that President Biden’s first television interview since his disastrous debate performance fell short of alleviating deep concerns about his age and mental acuity, and that the president has more work to do to convince voters he is fit to run for and win re-election.“Voters do have questions,” Mr. Murphy said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”He added: “Personally, I love Joe Biden, and I don’t know that the interview on Friday night did enough to answer those questions. This week is going to be absolutely critical. I think the president needs to do more.”Mr. Murphy said he would urge Mr. Biden to “do a town hall, do a press conference — show the country he is still the old Joe Biden.”He avoided directly answering whether Mr. Biden should step aside, saying, “I know there are a lot of voters out there that need to be convinced that Thursday’s night’s debate performance was a bad night.”The carefully calibrated comments from Mr. Murphy were some of the first public alarm bells from the ranks of Senate Democrats, who have stayed mostly silent since the debate over a week ago, but who are increasingly concerned about Mr. Biden’s ability to serve as the party’s nominee. It came as Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, was set to convene top House Democrats later Sunday to discuss Mr. Biden’s candidacy, and at a time when a handful from within his ranks have already publicly called on the president to step aside.Mr. Murphy’s comments reflected where many Senate Democrats are landing as they head back to Washington for a critical week: They want to give Mr. Biden a little more room to prove himself, or exit the race on his own terms, before making any explicit call for him to do so. But they are also aware that there may be no way, at this point, to prove to voters that he is not too old for the task of defeating former President Donald J. Trump.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Biden Campaigns in Pennsylvania, as Calls Continue for Him to Quit the Race

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      President Biden will continue his efforts to rescue his imperiled re-election effort on Sunday, with two campaign stops in Pennsylvania, a key swing state.Mr. Biden will visit Philadelphia and then Harrisburg, as a growing number of Democrats from across the party’s ideological spectrum are calling for him to drop out of the race over concerns about his age and mental sharpness.Pennsylvania is one of the states that Mr. Biden almost certainly must win if he hopes to retain the White House. And its largest city, Philadelphia, is one of his favorite places to campaign. But former President Donald J. Trump has pulled ahead in the state in many polls.Mr. Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020, but Mr. Trump now leads the president by about three percentage points, according to a FiveThirtyEight polling average. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a top Biden surrogate, spent Friday and Saturday campaigning for the president in Western Pennsylvania and Bucks County, a hotly contested battleground.Mr. Biden had been expected to speak at a meeting of the National Education Association in Philadelphia on Sunday, but he pulled out after the powerful education union’s staff went on strike. He will instead deliver an address at a church service in Northwest Philadelphia on Sunday morning.“President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions, and he won’t cross a picket line,” Lauren Hitt, a Biden campaign spokeswoman, said in a statement.After Philadelphia, Mr. Biden will travel to Harrisburg for a community organizing event with union members on Sunday afternoon. His campaign said he would be joined throughout the day by Gov. Josh Shapiro and Pennsylvania’s two senators, Bob Casey and John Fetterman, both Democrats.Since a poor debate performance where he frequently lost his train of thought, Mr. Biden has largely stuck to delivering prepared remarks from a teleprompter. Without the device, he has sometimes struggled to speak clearly.This week, he stumbled over his words during two radio interviews, even though his aides had provided the hosts with the questions, a practice that goes against standard journalistic ethics. And he gave several confusing answers during an interview with ABC News on Friday.Even Mr. Biden’s allies have said that his campaign should ensure that he appears more in public without a teleprompter to demonstrate his mental sharpness.“They don’t need scripted remarks,” said Steve Sisolak, the former Democratic governor of Nevada, who supports Mr. Biden. “He needs to show people that he can do it on the spot and answer questions — tough questions — and be out there with voters. Be out there, mingle with your folks.”Despite doubts from many Democrats, Mr. Biden has defiantly insisted that he will stay in the race. On Friday, the president told ABC News that only the “Lord Almighty” could force him to drop out. More