Biden holds rally in Detroit as Trump teases VP pick: Highlights (2024)

GOP campaigns eye ads linking Democrats to questions about Biden’s mental fitness

Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., tells NBC News' Kristen Welker that “more people than [he] can count” in his district have called for Biden to step down following his debate performance.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., tonight criticized people who questioned Biden's candidacy.

"How many weeks are you gonna do the work for Trump?" Fetterman asked in an interview on CNN.

Later he said, "Who are you really helping?"

Reporting from Detroit

Biden tore into the “right-wingProject 2025” and made it a central theme of his speech at a rally tonight in battleground Michigan as he seeks to put a lid onDemocratic callsthat he withdraw from the presidential race.

“Folks, Project 2025 is the biggest attack on our system of government and on our personal freedom that’s ever been proposed in the history of this country,” Biden told the crowd, adding that the initiative “is run and paid for by Trump people” and is “a blueprint for a second Trump.”

He said it would unleash a “nightmare” on the country if his Republican rival is elected and implements it. “Another four years of Donald Trump is deadly serious. Project 2025 is deadly serious,” Biden said, describing it as a threat to American values.

Read the full story here.

A senior White House official said Biden called out the press at tonight's rally because "he knows you guys have been f---ing with him, and he was having a little fun.”

In his remarks in Detroit, Biden said that the media has "been hammering me" since last month's debate, arguing that "Donald Trump has gotten a free pass."

In response to his remarks, the audience booed the media as Biden said, "No, no, no. It's OK."

Rally attendees booing the media has long been a staple of Trump rallies, where the former president often lashes out at journalists over their coverage of him.

Five vulnerable House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to step aside and "pass the torch." But many others are still on the fence, taking a much more cautious approach as they wait to see whether he drops out.

One Democratic frontliner shared with NBC News how they are approaching the difficult political landscape. They said calls to their office are evenly split, with half saying Biden should step down and half saying he should stay. And they don't want to take a formal position against Biden until they are convinced doing so will result in him leaving.

Some frontline Democrats are also worried that calling for Biden to quit the race could dampen enthusiasm from base voters, the lawmaker said, which could make all the difference in close, competitive races.

A number of at-risk Democrats plan to participate in a virtual meeting between Biden and the New Democrat Coalition tomorrow afternoon. The frontline lawmaker said they hope to share polling with Biden showing that he can't win in this person's congressional district, underscoring why the lawmaker can't appear with Biden on the campaign trail.

NBC News correspondent Shaquille Brewster sat down with Milwaukee’s Democratic Mayor Cavalier Johnson and former RNC Chair Reince Priebus on the bipartisan effort to get this year’s convention off the ground.

Biden laid out his top priorities for the first 100 days of a second term at tonight's campaign rally in Detroit.

The president pointed to working to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade as well as signing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The president said he would expand and strengthen Social Security, raise the federal minimum wage and ban assault weapons, among other initiatives.

Several of his goals would require congressional support — a tall order without robust Democratic majorities.

Independent candidate for president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reachedout to a woman who once worked for his family after she alleged that he sexually assault assaulted her in the 1990s.

In an article published by Vanity Fair last week, Kennedy was accused of groping then-23-year-old Eliza Cooney in 1999 while she was at Kennedy’s home. Cooney kept this allegation and other incidents quiet until 2017 when she revealed them to her mother and years later, to two friends and a lawyer, Vanity Fair reported.

NBC News has not independently confirmed the allegations.

Biden delivered a forceful defense of his candidacy during his Detroit remarks.

“I am running, and we’re gonna win!" Biden said.

A pro-Palestinian protester interrupted Biden's speech but was drowned out by chants of "four more years."

Biden responded by pointing to the peace plan he proposed to end the war.

As Biden was introduced ahead of his speech in Detroit, the audience broke out in a loud, supportive chant.

"Don't you quit! Don't you quit!" they chanted.

A New York bankruptcy judge today dismissed Rudy Giuliani’spetitionseeking bankruptcy protections, ruling that the onetime attorney to former President Donald Trump had failed to turn over key financial information despite being given numerous directives to do so.

The order by Judge Sean Lane paves the way for two now-former election workers in Georgia who wererepeatedly defamedby Giuliani after the 2020 election to begin collecting on their $146 million verdict against him.

Giuliani filed his bankruptcy petition in December, days after a jury awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss nearly $150 million for the false allegations of election fraud he made about them.

Read the full story here.

Biden's news conference last night was seen by 25 million viewers across linear platforms, according to Nielsen data.

While that makes it the third-most watched non-sports event of the year, it was about half of the more than 51 million viewers who watched last month's presidential debate. It's also less than the viewership of Biden's State of the Union address in March.

Biden's interview last week with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos garnered 8.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Biden's next one-on-one TV interview is scheduled for Monday with Lester Holt on NBC News.

Rep. MikeLevin, D-Calif.,told Biden personally that he should leave the race during a video call with House Democrats today, according to four sources familiar with the exchange.

Levintold the president that while he respected his decades of public service and stressed Democrats’ desire to defeat Trump in November, it is time for new leadership for the party, the sources said.

“That’s why I’m going out and letting people touch me, poke me, ask me questions,” Biden responded, acknowledging people have raised questions about his path forward as the Democratic nominee, according to one source with direct knowledge of the call.

Moments after the call, which Biden joined an hour later than it was scheduled, Levinreleased a statement calling on Biden to pass the torch, making him the 19th congressional Democrat to call on Biden to drop out.

Social media giant Meta has removed special restrictions on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Trump that date to the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a group of Trump’s supporters.

The companysaid in a statementtoday that it was doing so because the “extraordinary circ*mstances” surrounding the attack and its aftermath had passed, and because it wanted to put Trump and Biden on equal footing before the Nov. 5 election.

The restrictions were designed to keep Trump on a tighter leash than other Facebook and Instagram users, subjecting him to “heightened” penalties if he had violated any rules.

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NBC News’ Shaquille Brewster is in Milwaukee finding out how the city is preparing to host the 2024 Republican National Convention.

A Biden campaign official today told "Meet the Press NOW" that the president remains committed to staying in the 2024 race, and that campaign officials are not advising him to drop out.

"I am a member of the president’s team, and so when the president says to you that his team is not giving him that, or not coming to him and saying, 'You can’t win,' it’s because we are not," Quentin Fulks told NBC News' Kristen Welker in an interview. "President Biden is in this race. And our campaign is going to continue to do what we have set out to do rom the moment he announced reelection. We have built this campaign to be in a fight in a very close election."

Several close Biden allies, including three people directly involved in his re-election efforts, told NBC News this week that they view his efforts to win in November as zero.

Social media has been abuzz with details of Trump’s relationship with the late notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but while the pair knew each other for decades, there are no new revelations in the so-called Epstein Files released this year.

Misleading and sensational claims about Trump and Epstein have percolated online this week, circulating on Reddit and TikTok. On X, the hashtag #TrumpPedoFiles trended throughout Wednesday, according to the websiteTrends24.in, which tracks the platform. The claims got a boost this week from Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California.

“Something I’ve heard that doesn’t seem to be being covered are the Epstein files. These files were released. Donald Trump is sort of all over this. There are pictures of him with Jeffrey Epstein. He’s taken multiple plane flights with Epstein, with young girls aboard. He’s in call logs with Epstein,”Lieu told reportersTuesday, urging them to look into the “highly disturbing” allegations.

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Biden will hold a virtual meeting tomorrow with members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, according to a source familiar the matter.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, serves as the caucus chair and has expressed concerns about Biden continuing as the Democratic presidential nominee. Many in the caucus are also at odds with Biden over his support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

His meeting with progressives will be followed by a meeting with the more moderate New Democrat Coalition, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Republicans will lean on a lineup of lesser-known speakers to drive home themes and narratives along with elected officials and Trump at next week’s Republican National Convention.

The list of more than two-dozen “everyday American” speakers shared with NBC News includes a number of immigrants and Black Americans, part of Trump’s continued efforts to make inroads with groups that have leaned against Republicans. Many of the speakers will argue that Biden is responsible for challenges they have faced, including the impact of the fentanyl crisis, economic hardship and domestic divisions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Multiple speakers have a history of political activism and running for local or state office. The lineup also includes several former Democrats, some of whom voted for Biden in 2020.

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Trump said that he’d like to announcehis vice presidential running matenext week, potentially during the Republican National Convention, and named four key allies as potential picks.

“I’d love to do it during the convention, which would be, you know, or just slightly before the convention, like Monday, love to do it on Tuesday or Wednesday, actually, but for a lot of complex reasons that you people understand, pretty much don’t do that,” Trump told “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.”

Trump has been inno rush to reveal his running mate, more than happy to cede the spotlight to the Democratic Party, which is embroiled in the fallout of Biden’s rough debate performance. The former president has a rally scheduled for tomorrow evening in western Pennsylvania.

Read the full story here.

Trump said in a Truth Social post that Biden should immediately take a cognitive test and that he would "go with him" and take one as well.

"For the first time we’ll be a team, and do it for the good of the Country….And from now on, all Presidential candidates should be mandated to take a Cognitive Test and Aptitude Test, regardless of their age!!!" Trump wrote in his post.

Biden said at his press conference last night that he has undergone three neurological exams since taking office. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week that the president has undergone these exams once a year over the last three years.

Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., on Friday became the 19th congressional Democrat to publicly call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.

In a statement, Levin said that like many people, he was "naturally concerned" about Biden's performance in the debate. He said he's had a chance to connect with his constituents in the last two weeks and that the response since the debate has been "overwhelming."

"First, let me say that President Biden has been an outstanding leader, not only of our nation, but of the entire free world. Making this statement is not easy," he said. "I have deep respect for President Biden’s five plus decades of public service and incredible appreciation for the work we’ve done together these last three and a half years. But I believe the time has come for President Biden to pass the torch."

Youth climate group the Sunrise Movement on Friday called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

“Joe Biden’s next climate legacy-defining act must be to pass the torch to a new nominee. Today, I’m thinking about my family in Minneapolis and Kerala. About the world I want my generation to live in. The stakes are too high. We can’t afford to ignore the warning signs in front of us,”Sunrise Movement Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay wrote in a statement.

Notably, the statement also said, “Regardless of who the Democratic candidate is, our plan is the same: to persuade young voters to turn out for the Democratic nominee in order to defeat Trump.”

Biden will speak to the New Democrat Coalition — which includes some of the caucus’ more moderate and front-line voices — tomorrow at 4 p.m. ET, a source familiar with the plan tells NBC News.

The Zoom call is scheduled for 30 minutes and only open to members.

This group includes members like Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., who have called for the president to step down as the party’s nominee.

The coalition is chaired by retiring Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., who campaigned for Biden in the Granite State over the winter.

After months of testing, some conservative activists are finding that thevigilante computer programsthey’d hoped would give them the ability to root out redundancies and fraud in the country’s voter rolls aren’t very reliable.

Last year, those activists excitedly embracedEagleAI and similar programsthat promised to help them look through voter rolls across the country in search of outdated or fraudulent voter registrations, even as experts warned about the programs’ limitations.

Biden is scheduled to join a call early this afternoon with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told NBC News.

The group's chair, Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., has forcefully backed Biden and stood by him since the debate. Senators in the caucus have also been very supportive of Biden.

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., a CHC member, was among the first congressional Democrats to call on Biden to exit the race.

Biden was also scheduled to speak to members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus this afternoon. Its second vice chair, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said in a private call with other House Democrats last weekend that he thought Biden should drop out, NBC News previously reported.

Biden is expected to make more calls to Hill lawmakers today, a source said.

As more and more Democrats call on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, a key group of allies on Capitol Hill, remain largely supportive of the president but concerned that the ongoing pressure may prove fatal for his campaign and damage the party overall.

In interviews Thursday with NBC News, five members of the caucus said that while small fissures are emerging, most lawmakers remain loyal to Biden. Still, they want to see a change in campaign strategy and staffing to better position Democrats to win in November — concerns they say they’ve been sharing with the campaign for months.

Two of those CBC members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their thoughts on Biden, also said they worry Biden may not be able to continue as the nominee if he can’t move past his dismal debate performance in the coming days and convince party leaders, donors and voters that he remains the best candidate to beat former President Donald Trump.

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In an interview with CNN earlier today, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a Biden campaign co-chair, defended the president and told his fellow lawmakers to convey their concerns about Biden directly to him, rather than speaking publicly.

"He has been listening," Coons said, emphasizing the majority of congressional Democrats who still back Biden, saying, "the 10% or less of House Democrats raising questions don’t deserve the same coverage as the 90% of House Democrats who are saying that Joe Biden is going to be our nominee and that Joe Biden is the leader of our party."

"The path forward is that Joe Biden, who ran for and won the primaries in state after state after state,and is the only Democratic candidate for president who has a huge number of delegates at our convention next month," Coons added.

Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., called on Biden to pull out of the presidential race this morning.

"Joe Biden saved our country once, and I'm joining the growing number of people in my district and across the country to ask him to do it again. Please pass the torch to one of our many capable Democratic leaders so we have the best chance to defeat Donald Trump, who is the greatest threat to the foundation of this country that we have ever faced," she said in a statement shared on X.

In a letter to colleagues, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he met with Biden last night and "directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together."

Jeffries, D-N.Y., didn't mention Biden's reaction to this in the letter, though a handful of additional Democratic lawmakers last night publicly broke from the president, calling for him to step aside.

Biden’s first White House chief of staff Ron Klain said in an interview this morning that he believes the president should remain in the presidential race, saying that "he is the nominee of the Democratic Party."

"We had a democratic process. Voters all across the country went and voted in primary after primary, and they voted to renominate Joe Biden as the leader of the Democratic ticket," Klain said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Melania Trump will attend the Republican National Convention next week, a source familiar with the convention plans told NBC News.

The source did not immediately respond to questions about whether she would be there the entire time or if she is expected to speak.

The former first lady has been notably absent from the campaign trail and has not attended any of Trump's New York trials. Her last appearance at a public event with her husband was on March 19 when both of them went to vote in Florida's Republican primary.

She has attended some private fundraisers throughout the campaign. Earlier this week, she hosted a fundraiser with the Log Cabin Republicans at Mar-a-Lago.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump thanked Viktor Orbán, the hard-line prime minister of Hungary, after the two men met yesterday at Mar-a-Lago.

He shared a post from Orban on X, in which the Hungarian leader said that they discussed ending the war in Ukraine.

Biden heads today to the crucial swing state of Michigan, where he will deliver a campaign speech in Detroit.

House members, labor leaders and political allies are set to attend the event, according to the Biden campaign. The group includes Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and Voto Latino CEO María Teresa Kumar.

Biden will travel to his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after the event, according to his schedule.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., an influential party member and ally of Biden, continued to defend the president's decision to stay in the presidential race.

Asked if conversations about the possibility of Biden stepping aside should continue following the president's press conference, Clyburn said "no" and that the party should focus on the administration's record.

“Let Joe Biden continue to make his own decisions about his future,” Clyburn said during an interview with "TODAY" host Craig Melvin. "He’s earned that right and I am going to give him that much respect."

Despite the uncertainty on Capitol Hill and the negative headlines engulfing their candidacy, the Biden campaign is arguing the president succeeded in fending off some of his doubters last night.

“There will be people that have different opinions,” a campaign official said, downplaying the new defections since the press conference ended.

“We have to stop talking about ourselves and have to start talking about the guy we’re running against,” the official said. “Every day that we don’t talk about Trump or Project 2025 is wasted.”

Biden faced calls to end his candidacy from three additional House Democrats last night after his news conference concluded.

Reps. Eric Sorensen of Illinois, Scott Peters of California and Jim Himes of Connecticut all called for Biden to bow out of the race.

At the same time, several congressional Democrats praised his performance, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

Biden continued defending his re-election bid during a nearly hourlong news conference last night, at which he provided detailed answers to foreign policy questions.

Biden argued that he is the most qualified candidate and pushed back when he was asked about his fitness for office.

The news conference was not without gaffes; Biden at one point referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump."