(NewsNation) — U.S. President Joe Biden addressed crowds of military service members on Thursday, at a barbecue marking the Fourth of July on the White House South Lawn.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Biden told a crowd. “Keep up the fight!” one supporter yelled. “You got me, man,” Biden replied.
Biden is making every effort to get his presidential campaign back on track following a difficult week in which calls for him to step aside in favor of another Democratic nominee arrived in the wake of a debate performance many considered disastrous.
Biden has acknowledged to supporters and in radio interviews that he “screwed up” and had a bad night in last week’s debate with former President Donald Trump. But amid growing concerns over his ability to serve the nation’s highest office for another four years if reelected, Biden is determined to make another run at the White House.
Biden’s annual July 4 Independence Day festivities appearance came a day after the president met with 20 Democratic governors for an hour, which followed Biden defiantly telling White House staff members that he had no intention of leaving the race.
“I am running. … No one is pushing me out,” Biden said on the call, according to multiple published reports. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end, and we’re going to win.”
Biden’s show of confidence comes in what many insist is a critical few days as he looks to defeat Trump in November. Biden will travel to Wisconsin on Friday when he will try to restore the confidence of voters in one of five swing states that will likely determine the winner of the election.
Polls show that Biden trails Trump in the battleground states and that he has dropped two points in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania since the debate. Biden will also sit for a nationally televised interview on ABC News on Friday that was initially scheduled to air Sunday.
The push to attempt to get his campaign back on the right footing comes as at least two Democratic lawmakers have called for Biden to leave the race in favor of a candidate with a better chance of defeating Trump.
Despite those pleas, however, governors who attended Wednesday’s meeting with Biden are publicly backing the president.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said that Biden’s message was clear: He is in the race to win it.
“The president is our party leader,” Moore said, according to the Associated Press.
Following appearances in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days, Biden will attend the NATO Summit in Washington next week. He hopes to use the series of public appearances and interviews to prove that he is capable of doing the job moving forward.
