'I'm in the race to the end': Biden says he's not stepping down, asks Democrats to rally around him

US President Joe Biden has laid to rest the speculations around his run in the presidential election against Donald Trump. He has said he is not dropping out.

In a letter to Democratic Party’s lawmakers, Biden said that he is in the race against Trump till the very end. He asked the party to rally around him as he said he looks forward to beating Trump in the election to be held in November.

Following the disastrous presidential debate with Donald Trump in which Biden struggled to complete sentences multiple times, appeared to freeze often, and seemed to have lost his train of thoughts, Democratic lawmakers, donors, and public figures had called upon him to drop out of the presidential election and pass on the nomination to someone younger — such as Vice President Kamala Harris. There were reports that Biden was considering dropping out but now he has laid such anonymous sources-based reporting to rest.

In the letter that he shared on X (formerly Twitter), Biden said that he was the best person in the party to beat Trump, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. He further said that he carries the will of the Democratic Party voters who chose him as their nominee in the party’s primaries.

Biden said, “We had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively. I received over 14 million votes, 87 per cent of the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly 3,900 delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin.”

Biden further said, “I feel a deep obligation to the faith and the trust the voters of the Democratic Party have placed in me to run this year. It was their decision to make. Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned. The voters - and the voters alone - decide the nominee of the Democratic Party. How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our own party? I cannot do that. I will not do that.”

While Biden’s age —he will be 82 when he starts second term and 86 when he concludes it— has long been flagged, it has dwarfed all other issues since the debate with Debate. Biden’s physical and mental health is under question and confidence in his ability to carry out the taxing job of the presidency has fallen to an all-time low. Some surveys have shown that Harris will have a better chance at beating Trump as the Democratic nominee if Biden drops out.

While Biden and the White House have blamed the poor show in the debate on a cold and hectic travel in the run-up to the debate, several reports have come in American media in days after the debate that say Biden has indeed slowed down in recent months and many people who have seen him closely have been shocked by his health. At the same time, reports have also said that while there are gaffes and lapses, Biden has often been sharp and has address governance issues well, such as sharply dealing with the Iranian attack on Israel from the Situation Room of White House and telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not escalate and warning him that the United States will not support a massive Israeli attack on Iran.