Biden shrugs off calls to exit presidential race as he takes aim at Trump’s ‘Project 2025’

Joe Biden on Friday came out swinging against Republican plans to install Donald Trump loyalists across the executive branch to enact draconian right-wing policies if he wins a second term.

The president, fresh off hosting NATO’s annual summit in Washington and less than a day after a marathon press conference, took to a rally stage in Detroit, Michigan to shrug off calls for him to exit the 2024 election race. Instead he told rallygoers: “I am running, and we’re going to win.”

He said he remains the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, citing his status as “the only Democrat or Republican who has beaten Donald Trump, ever.”

“I’m going to beat him again,” Biden continued, calling Trump “a loser” and reiterating his believe that Democratic primary voters — “not the press, not the pundits, not the insiders, not donors” — rightly chose him to take on the former president.

“You decided, no one else, and I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

Biden turned his attention to his presumptive opponent, the man he defeated four years ago, contrasting his own work strengthening the NATO alliance with Trump’s declaration that Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine was “genius” and “wonderful”.

Biden also hit out at the press for reporting on his own verbal miscues, such as when he confused Volodymyr Zelensky with Russia’s Vladimir Putin when introducing the Ukrainian leader during an event on Thursday.

“I guess they don’t remember the Trump called Nikki Haley, Nancy Pelosi,” Biden said, referring to a moment several months ago when Trump claimed Haley — his former UN Ambassador who challenged him for the GOP nomination this year — was in charge of security at the US Capitol during the January 6 attack by his own supporters.

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