Biden returns to campaign trail in Philadelphia as pressure grows to exit race: Live

In a 75-minute call, allies of the president, including Delaware Senator Chris Coons, discussed Biden’s recent appearances and how to generate more support after his disastrous debate performance.

Coons told the newspaper that, “nobody among the co-chairs” is recommending “anything other than we keep going.”

The Delaware Senator said that Biden expressed understanding for concerns about his age and mental acuity and wants to do more interviews in the future to settle any nerves.

The Biden campaign is pushing back against Donald Trump’s claim that he knows “nothing” of Project 2025 – the presidential transition project headed by The Heritage Foundation and several allies of the former president.

”We can always rely on Donald Trump for one thing: to lie to the American people in the pursuit of power,” a statement from the Biden campaign said.

Over the weekend, Trump claimed he did not know about Project 2025 nor the people who authored it. He disagreed with some of its policies in an attempt to distance himself from the project which has gained negative attention on social media

The campaign claimed Project 2025 was “written for” Trump “by those closest to him.”

“Project 2025 should scare every single American. It would give Trump limitless power over our daily lives and let him use the presidency to enact ‘revenge’ on his enemies, ban abortion nationwide and punish women who have an abortion, and gut the checks and balances that make America the greatest democracy in the world.”

President Joe Biden will stop at a church in northwest Philadelphia today as part of his campaign in Pennsylvania, it arrives after he canceled a speech at the annual National Education Association conference.

After stopping at the church, Biden will head to Harrisburg – the capital – where he will speak with union leaders and local Democrats.

Donald Trump has the largest lead over Biden in Pennsylvania out of all the swing states.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is set to meet virtually with committee ranking members at 2pm on Sunday afternoon, three sources told NBC News.

The meeting, which was abruptly scheduled on Friday night, is not part of any regular scheduled gatherings and comes just one day before Congress returns to session after the July 4 holiday.

One of the insiders told the outlet that the meeting will focus on Biden’s future as the Democratic party’s candidate to take on Donald Trump in November’s 2024 election, in the wake of his disastrous debate performance last week.

CNN’s chief medical correspondent has called for Joe Biden to undergo “detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing” after observing the president’s “concerning” behavior in recent weeks.

Dr Sanjay Gupta said that following Biden’s disastrous performance in last week’s debate against Donald Trump, he had received “dozens” of calls and messages from fellow medical professionals.

“From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression,” Gupta wrote in an article for CNN.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner is looking to lead a group of Democratic senators that want President Joe Biden to step aside before November’s election, The Washington Post reported.

Warner is reportedly saying to colleagues that Biden can’t stay in the race following his dismal debate performance and that he’s worried that Biden cannot run a campaign that will defeat former president Donald Trump.

In a statement to The Post, a spokesperson for the senator said: “Like many other people in Washington and across the country, Senator Warner believes these are critical days for the president’s campaign, and he has made that clear to the White House.”

Senators are now discussing the best way to share their thoughts with the president. One idea is a meeting with Biden at the White House. Some senators wish Biden to remain on the ticket, but those who argue for the meetings say it could be a venue to share their concerns.

No sitting senator, including Warner, has publicly called for Biden to step aside but in private they have spoken about their rising unease.

Donald Trump offered Joe Biden some sarcastic encouragement on Truth Social on Saturday in light of recent calls by some — including a few Democrats — for the president to bow out of the 2024 race following his highly criticised debate performance.

Trump’s post — filled with numerous misrepresentations about the president’s policies — “encouraged” Biden to ignore his critics and to continue his 2024 candidacy.

“Crooked Joe Biden should ignore his many critics and move forward, with alacrity and strength, with his powerful and far reaching campaign,” Trump said, before dropping the guise of genuine encouragement.

He said Biden should be “sharp, precise, and energetic, just like he was in The Debate.”

Trump then went on to falsely accuse Biden of having an open border policy, of ending Social Security and encouraging what he described as a “woke military”.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer and one-time fixer Michael Cohen has warned that his ex-boss will run the country “like the Führer” if he is re-elected in November, thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Citing the Trump vs US ruling, Cohen told The Daily Beast that the former president could now wield his power in whatever way he wants if he takes back the White House this November.

“He’ll run the country like a king, like a supreme leader, like a monarch, like a dictator, like the Führer,” Cohen said, invoking the German word strongly associated with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.