Many Democrats are sticking with Biden. Here’s why

BBC:

As Joe Biden took to the stage for a rally in Detroit, Michigan, on Friday evening, one of the most raucous crowds seen in recent years at any event for the US president chanted: “Don’t you quit!”

The presumptive Democratic nominee was greeted by deafening cheers from hundreds of supporters as he vowed: “I am running! And I’m gonna win!”

As he left the stage, the strains of Tom Petty’s hit I Won’t Back Down washed over the high school gymnasium, an implicit rebuff to the growing list of elected members of his party exhorting him to step aside amid concerns about his age.

But for all the headlines dominated by the latest politician, donor or liberal actor to turn on Mr Biden, a longer list of Democrats are sticking by him.

At least 80 Democratic politicians have publicly backed the 81-year-old, and more are joining them as he insists he is going nowhere.

To many, his political record, his principles and his 2020 victory over Donald Trump mean more than the damage of a rambling performance in any debate or public appearance, or health fears during a new four-year term.

In Mr Biden’s first solo news conference of the year on Thursday, he gave detailed responses on Nato and his plans for a second term, but many headlines focused on his flub in referring to his deputy, Kamala Harris, as “Vice-President Trump”.

His allies – for now, at least – praised the embattled commander-in-chief’s performance, which was watched live by over 23 million people – a bigger audience than this year’s Oscars.

“I thought he showed a real command of foreign policy, really extraordinary,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told reporters on Friday. “I don’t think Donald Trump can talk about foreign policy coherently for one minute.”

Gavin Newsom, the California governor touted as a possible successor, told CBS he was “all in” for Mr Biden, adding that there was “no daylight” between them.

Congressman Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania said Mr Biden “showed he knows a million times more about policy” than Trump, “the convict conman”.