Biden to Resume Campaign After COVID-19 Quarantine

Despite being isolated at home, US President Joe Biden has dismissed reports that he is ready to step down.

US President Joe Biden will resume his campaign next week, his aides announced on Friday. Biden’s staff have been working to downplay reports suggesting his campaign is close to ending.

Biden has been in quarantine at his Delaware home since testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. While the diagnosis paused his campaign, it did not stop media reports claiming that Democratic lawmakers and influential figures – including former President – were about to force the 81-year-old to end his bid for reelection. These reports alleged that Biden’s was the reason.

Biden’s aides countered these reports on Friday. “I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda while making the case for my own record,” Biden’s campaign stated, attributing the words to the president. 

‘Project 2025’, devised by a conservative think-tank, is a manifesto urging Trump to dismantle federal agencies, diminish the influence of US intelligence agencies, and impose strict restrictions on immigration and abortion rights, as part of a larger right-wing transformation of the US government. The Biden campaign has used ‘Project 2025’ as a primary attack against Trump, despite the former president denying any involvement in its creation and claiming to endorse only the Republican party’s platform.

In an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Biden’s campaign chairwoman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, reiterated that he was not dropping out.

“Absolutely the president is in this race,” O’Malley Dillon said of Biden. “The president is the leader of our campaign and of the country and he is clearly… the best person to take on Donald Trump and prosecute that case and present his vision.”

O’Malley Dillon acknowledged that Biden’s campaign has “seen some slippage in support” following his disappointing debate performance against Trump last month. However, she asserted that the Democrat has only experienced a “small movement” in polls and claimed that the president would receive an endorsement from a “significant national organization” next week. 

Trump formally accepted his party’s nomination for the presidency at the Republican National Convention on Thursday. While Biden won the Democratic Party’s largely non-competitive primary election, he has yet to be officially declared the party’s candidate. The Democratic National Committee plans to nominate Biden through a virtual vote before the party’s convention in August. Some Democrats advocating for Biden to step down have criticized this decision, calling for an open convention where a different candidate could be chosen.