As Biden faces pressure from people within his own party, Cuban counts himself among those who is sticking with the president.
As beleaguered President Joe Biden faces continued calls to step down from his campaign for a second term in the White House, billionaire businessman Mark Cuban counts himself among those who is standing by the Democrat.
Biden, the presumptive 2024 Democratic candidate, is expected to face off against Republican rival Donald Trump this November. However, the 81-year-old incumbent’s shaky debate performance last month against Trump, 78, only served to increase already existing questions about his age and mental acuity.
During the televised clash hosted by CNN, a number of viewers stated that Biden sounded hoarse and lacked energy throughout the night. A Biden aide told Newsweek that the president was battling a cold at the time. Biden himself blamed his poor execution on failing to “listen” to his staff and instead deciding “to travel around the world a couple of times” before the debate, telling supporters at a fundraiser in Virginia last week that he “almost fell asleep on stage.”
Since then, Biden sparked further concern before and during a press conference last week, when he introduced Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”, before correcting himself, and he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
The blunders intensified calls from both sides of U.S. politics for Biden to ditch his reelection efforts ahead of November. At least 17 Democratic members of Congress and senators have asked Biden to end his 2024 campaign.
Hollywood actor George Clooney penned a July 10 New York Times Op-Ed titled: “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.” In it, the Oscar winner wrote that while he considers Biden “a friend” and does “believe in him”, Democrats “are not going to win in November with this president.”
However, Cuban is standing by Biden, staying true to his conviction, after telling Bloomberg in March that in a race between the president and Trump, he’d always choose Biden, even if he was “being given last rites.”
“I don’t want a snake oil salesperson as president”, Cuban further stated. “I’m voting for Biden-Harris over Trump all day every day.”Debate Aftermath
Following the June 27 debate, the entrepreneur conceded in a lengthy post on X, formerly Twitter, that the incumbent’s “performance was awful.”
“But so was Trump’s”, he added. “Biden was feeble. Trump couldn’t directly answer a single question and lied with every response.
