WASHINGTON, July 5: President Joe Biden said "Im not going anywhere" as he faced calls by many Democrats to end his re-election bid, using the Fourth of July celebrations on Thursday to hit back at doubts about his stamina and mental acuity to continue his campaign.
The 81-year-old Democrats shaky showing at a June 27 debate with Republican rival Donald Trumpmeans his every appearance is now closely scrutinised.
Many Democratic voters are worried about whether he can keep up a gruelling pace of work for the next 4-1/2 years and some in his party have urged him to step aside.
Biden was hosting the annual US Independence Day festivities at the White House on Thursday, including a barbecue for a few thousand active-duty military service members and their families.
Biden, in a suit with no necktie, began his remarks with a forceful "Happy Independence Day!"
Reading from a teleprompter, Biden made no major errors in delivering brief remarks, but at one point appeared to go off script to make reference to a war cemetery that Trump declined to visit while in office.
"By the way, you know, I was in that World War One cemetery in France. The one that one of our colleagues, a former president didn want to go...," he said, his voice dropping to a low volume and trailing off.
"I probably shouldn have said, anyway," Biden added, before continuing his remarks. —REUTERS
