Draft:Suspension of the Joe Biden 2024 presidential campaign

Influential Democrats and major news outlets have called for President Joe Biden to suspend his 2024 United States presidential campaign following the first debate of the 2024 United States presidential election between Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

The Democrats asking President Biden not to run for a second term include current and former members of the U.S. Congress, and current and former Democratic Party statewide officials. The newspaper editorial boards asking Biden to stand down from his campaign include The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune, with a number of prominent Democratic Party donors and supporters also asking for a different candidate to represent their party in the 2024 presidential election.

Background
Before the June 27, 2024 debate and before his presidency, there have been concerns about Biden's age. On a couple of occasions during the 2020 campaign Biden called himself a "bridge candidate", leading some to believe he would not seek a second term. When Biden first took office at the age of 78 on January 20, 2021, he became the oldest person to have served as president of the United States. Calls from Biden supporters to step aside months or years before the debate were made by James Carville, Ezra Klein, and the Economist. Biden was 81 during the June 27 debate, while Trump had turned 78 years old weeks prior.

First presidential debate
The first debate between president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump was held on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 9:00 p.m. EDT in CNN's studios at the Techwood Turner campus in Atlanta, Georgia. In the aftermath of the debate, many called for Biden to drop out of the presidential race to allow for a different Democratic candidate to be picked at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. The influential Washington Post termed Biden as “unable to complete sentences, often spoke haltingly and, at times, seemed confused about what question he was trying to answer.” Biden was described as being weak and frail following the debate. A poll conducted by CBS News/YouGov found that 72% of voters did not believe Biden was capable of being president. Some close to Biden have said that he appears cognitively worse than he did a year ago.

Public support for President Biden to suspend his campaign
Former 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate Andrew Yang called for Biden to step down after the debate. On July 2, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to publicly call for Biden to step aside as the party's nominee. He was joined by various Congressmembers in the following days. 24 former Democratic Party members of the U.S. Congress called on Biden to release his delegates and hold an open Democratic convention in a July 12, 2024 letter. The New Republic described a widespread view among voters that Biden should step aside.

Response by Biden
Biden has refuted any possibility of him dropping out, saying only "the Lord Almighty" could convince him to drop out in an interview with ABC News held on July 5, after the first debate. Biden further affirmed his intent on staying in the race at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin.

On July 5, Biden met with Democratic governors across the country with the majority saying he should also remain in the race.

He wrote a letter to Congressional Democrats on July 8, reiterating that he would not end his candidacy. The same day, he called in to the MSNBC show Morning Joe and called for any prospective challengers to "run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention.”

On July 11, Biden responded to a question whether he would step aside if polling data showed Kamala had a better chance of beating Trump by saying that he would only step aside if he had zero chance of beating Trump.

Democrats who have expressed concern
Some Democrats have not taken a strong stand, expressing concern. As of July 12, 2024, 22 members of Congress have expressed concern in addition to the 20 who have called for Biden to step down.

Support for President Biden to continue
At least 35 prominent Democrats have publicly reiterated support for Biden following the debate:

Senate Democrats

 * John Fetterman
 * Bernie Sanders
 * Tammy Duckworth
 * Chris Coons

Conferences
The Washington Post reported that U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia was attempting to assemble a group of Democratic Senators to pressure Biden to withdraw from the race. On July 7, top Democrats, including minority house leader Hakeem Jeffries, held a rare party conference on the matter. On July 9, the full House Democratic Caucus and the Senate Democratic Caucus each held respective meetings to discuss Biden's place on the ticket.

On July 11, 2024, Biden held an hour-long solo press conference following the NATO 2024 Washington summit in order to demonstrate his capability to face Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Notably, Biden made two major gaffes, confusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Russian President Vladimir Putin and then mistakenly referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump." Later that evening House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Biden expressing "the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus" discussed earlier in the week.