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“God knew Biden needs some love,” said J Louis Felton, the church’s senior pastor, who noted that the president had been due to speak today at a National Education Association conference in Philadelphia.
When the NEA’s union announced a strike on Friday, the president cancelled his speech.
The congregation got to its feet. “Don’t get amnesia and forget,” that Biden “brought us back to prosperity,” said Felton.
Biden, introduced as “our honored guest”, has arrived at the Mt Airy Church of God in Christ in Northwest Philadelphia, to rapturous applause from the congregation.
Also on stage is a gospel choir and live band. “Let‘s give a hand for our president,” said the vocalist.
If congregants stand together, “there is no election that we cannot win,” the pastor began. “We love our president. We pray for our president.”
Biden is set next to the church’s founding bishop Ernest Morris Sr, who is 91.
“Since you are only an octogenarian, sitting next to a nonagenarian, don’t let anyone talk about your age,” said the pastor. “You’re a young whippersnapper.”
Also present is Pennsylvania’s Democratic senator Bob Casey, who Republicans hope to oust from his seat in the November election.
Joe Biden is set to speak at a church service in northwest Philadelphia shortly, one of two events scheduled today in Pennsylvania.
It is Biden’s tenth visit to the crucial swing state in the run-up to the election, according to his campaign.
He is appearing as part of what his aides have billed as a “voter outreach blitz,” as supporters and donors question the strength of his candidacy following last month’s disastrous TV debate against Donald Trump.
One demonstrator outside church on Sunday morning underlined the conflicting views within the Democratic Party. He carried a sign reading: “Thank you Joe, but time to go”
Bernie Sanders, the independent senator who caucuses with Democrats, signaled his continued support for Joe Biden, despite concerns over his ability to win the election following his lackluster debate performance.
“What we are talking about now is not a Grammy Award contest for best singer. Biden is old. He’s not as articulate as he once was. I wish he could jump up the steps on Air Force One – he can’t,” said Sanders, who advised the president to double down on progressive economic policies:
What we have got to focus on is policy, whose policies have and will benefit the vast majority of the people in this country, who has the guts to take on corporate America, who is talking about expanding Medicare so we cover dental, hearing and vision, who’s talking about raising the cap on the taxes that people pay into Social Security so we can raise social security benefits and extend the life of Social Security for 75 years, who’s talking about a permanent child tax credit to cut childhood poverty in America by 50%.
Those are the issues he’s talked about. He’s got to bring them up in the fall. He’s got to promise the American people that if they give him a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House, re-elect him, he’s going to do that in the first 100 days. That’s what I think the American people want.
We may hear more from Democratic lawmakers later today, after House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries convenes an unusual Sunday meeting to discuss Joe Biden’s candidacy.
According to the New York Times, Jeffries will meet with the ranking members on committees in the House, which is currently controlled by Republicans.
The timing of the meeting is not clear, but we’ll let you know what we hear about it.
Count Adam Schiff among the ranks of House Democrats who won’t say whether they think Joe Biden should end his campaign.
But Schiff did encourage the president to seek an array of opinions on whether he should stay in the race:
I think Joe Biden should take the time talk to people outside of his immediate circle, talk to people he respects, people with objectivity, people with distance, and make the right decision for the country.
Adam Schiff, a House Democrat who is likely to become California’s next senator in the November election, said he thought Kamala Harris could win the election, if Joe Biden drops out.
“The interview didn’t put concerns to rest. No single interview is going to do that,” Schiff said on NBC News. “And what I do think the president needs to decide is, can he put those concerns aside? Can he demonstrate the American people that what happened on the debate stage was an aberration?”
Referring to the vice-president, Schiff said, “I think she very well could win overwhelmingly, but before we get into a decision about who else it should be, the president needs to make a decision about whether it’s him.”
He added: “Either he has to win overwhelmingly, or he has to pass the torch to someone who can.”
Democratic senator Chris Murphy also made clear that Joe Biden’s Friday interview with ABC News did not do enough to quell doubts about his fitness to serve.
“I think that Friday night’s interview did not answer all the questions that you know people in my state have. They want to believe that this is still the old Joe Biden, but they need to see more from the president, and I hope that we see that this week,” Murphy said.
Here’s more on what the president told interviewer George Stephanopoulos:
In an interview with CNN, Democratic senator Chris Murphy declined to say whether he thought Joe Biden should drop out, but said “the clock is ticking” for the president to quell doubts about his fitness to continue to serve.
“I think that he’s got to go out there this week and show the American public that he is still that Joe Biden that they have come to know and love. I take him at his word. I believe that he can do it, but I think that this is a really critical week. I do think the clock is ticking,” Murphy said.
Should the president succeed in doing that, the Connecticut lawmaker predicted that he could get his campaign on track – but warned of the consequences if he fails to do so:
I think the President needs to answer those questions that voters have. If he does that this week, I think he will be in a very good position, and we can get back to what this campaign needs to be, a contrast between Joe Biden, a decent, honorable man of character, and Donald Trump, a pathological liar who has advertised that he wants to endorse and mainstream political violence in this country. But again, if the President is unwilling to do the things necessary to restore voters’ confidence or answer voters’ questions, then of course, he has a decision to make about what the best path forward is for the country, but if he answers those questions this week, there’s no doubt that he can win this race.
Good morning, US politics blog readers. More than a week has passed since Joe Biden’s weak performance in his first debate against Donald Trump, and things do not seem to have improved for the president. While the president has insisted he has no plans to abandon his re-election bid, the ranks of Democratic lawmakers and party luminaries calling for him to drop out continues to grow, albeit slowly. It’s anyone’s guess if that group will expand to include the veteran legislators considered most influential with the president – a group that includes the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, and South Carolina congressman James Clyburn – but Biden is not staying idle. Today, he is traveling to Pennsylvania, a must-win swing state where he spent his childhood, and has two campaign events planned that will see him appear before supporters in Philadelphia, and the capital Harrisburg. As with just about everything Biden does in the wake of his tired appearance on the debate stage, these events will be opportunities to prove to the public that he has what it takes to continue serving as president for another four years. We’ll let you know how they go.
Here’s what else is going on:
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, reportedly plans to convene a meeting of top lawmakers today to discuss Biden’s campaign.
The Sunday talk shows have several Democratic representatives and senators booked, and they could use the opportunity to weigh in on if they think the president should withdraw.
Kamala Harris appeared in New Orleans yesterday amid speculation that she is poised to take over from Biden, if he abandons his campaign. Here’s how it went.