FREDDIE GRAY: As Biden cries 'Ho Ho Ho!' at a July 4th party and refers to himself as a 'black woman', how long until the 'Joe must go' faction prevail?

If President Biden had hoped to quash demands for him to step aside as the Democratic Party's candidate after his devastating performance in the first debate against Donald Trump last month, his appearance at the White House's official Independence Day celebrations will not have helped.

The President puzzlingly greeted the crowd with, 'Ho ho ho! Happy Independence Day,' apparently confusing Christmas and the Fourth of July.

When he veered off-script to make a jab at his opponent Donald Trump, he lost his train of thought and faded into silence.

Hours before, he said in a radio interview that he was 'proud' to be the first 'black woman to serve with a black president'.

It comes after the White House on Wednesday had to deny, with some ferocity, reports suggesting Biden had admitted to allies that he may not be able to salvage his candidacy.

Later, on a campaign telephone call, Biden himself insisted: 'Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can: I am running. No one is pushing me out.' Yet rumours continue to swirl.

A bunker mentality has developed in the White House. Biden is rumoured to have become so irritable that his closest aides, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, are said to shield him from lesser-known staff for fear of triggering his temper.

Biden is being 'managed' more than ever. Since the debate, his — always restricted — appearances have been even more limited.

Aides are briefing the Press about Biden calling allies to persuade them he's doing well. 

'It's now become a positive thing that he's able to pick up the phone,' jokes one Washington hack.

But if form is any guide, it won't be long before he has yet another senior moment for all the world to see — and Democrats know that the next big humiliation could make Biden's position truly untenable. 

A few Democratic congressmen, such as Lloyd Doggett (Texas) and Raul Grijalva (Arizona) have said Biden must move aside. 

But a strict sense of electoral omerta keeps most from going public.

What Democrats say in private is another matter. There's even a theory that the party has given up on winning in November and is already looking ahead to 2028.

Earlier this week, Democratic state governors met their President at the White House, allegedly to 'stand with him'.

But after Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn, two of the most powerful politicians in the party were expressing their ambiguity. 

'I think it's a legitimate question to say: 'Is this an episode or is this a condition?' said Pelosi, when asked about Biden's health.

'I'll have to wait on the experts in medicine to give their opinion because I'm not a doctor,' said Clyburn when asked about the President's debate performance.

Other well-known Democratic figures have gone further. James Carville, the 79-year-old former strategist, urged the party to do 'something different'. 

Reed Hastings, the Netflix co-founder who is one of the biggest donors to the Democratic party, also weighed in, saying: 'Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump.'

The 'Joe must go' faction — the 'Bed Wetting Brigade', Team Biden calls them — is growing. But it must confront some awkward truths. 

The most immediate is that Joe Biden has already won the Democratic primary process for in 2024. 

If he continues to refuse to step aside, it is almost impossible to see how his critics can hijack his confirmation as the party's nominee in Chicago next month.

'What you've got to understand is that Joe Biden is the Pope of the Democratic party,' says one Democratic operative. 'He is the leader, the unifier. He's not going to be forced out.'

It's long been said that the only person who could persuade Joe to stand down is his wife Jill. But the First Lady seems even more determined than her husband to battle on. 

She appears on the cover of this month's Vogue magazine alongside the headline: 'WE WILL DECIDE OUR FUTURE.'

It's not just Jill. The whole Biden family convened at Camp David on Sunday and urged Joe to stay in the race. 

Hunter, the President's son, a recovering crack addict recently found guilty of lying to buy a gun, reportedly played a key part in discussions.

The only real hope for Democrats who want Biden brushed aside is that the party's bigwigs will unite to demand his resignation — a possible echo of the last time a president resigned. 

In 1974, during the Watergate scandal, Republican senators persuaded Richard Nixon to stand down.

Some claim that Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, is the only Democrat with enough influence to force the President's resignation. 

She has worked with him for many years and shares his very liberal Catholicism.

Others say that Clyburn, as arguably the most powerful African-American in Congress, has sufficient clout. 

It was Clyburn who all but won Biden the Democratic nomination in 2020 as he endorsed him in South Carolina.

Or there's Barack Obama, the most popular living Democratic politician, who last week issued a prompt statement of support for Biden on social media. 

'Bad debate nights happen,' he said.

But the relationship between Obama and Biden is complicated. The two men have often bickered in private. 

And Michelle Obama, the former First Lady, is reportedly refusing to campaign for the Bidens as she is bitter at the way they treated her friend Kathleen Buhle, Hunter's first wife.

Insiders tend to agree, though, that Obama and the Democratic elite will probably not turn on Biden any day soon, because there are no good alternatives.

If Biden withdrew and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, she would almost certainly secure the nomination. 

A hastily released survey this week showed that Harris now polls better than Biden against Trump.

But she is widely held to have been a disaster as 'Veep'. One consultant suggested swing-state voters would prefer a 'dead or comatose Joe Biden' to Harris.

If Biden stood down and declined to support Harris, the Democratic National Committee might have to open up the convention for other candidates to stake their claim.

But all the most frequently touted names have severe limitations. Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan governor, is seen as untested on the national stage.

California governor Gavin Newsom's once complicated private life is regarded as a potential liability.

The billionaire governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, may be able to fund his campaign, but he would anger the Democratic Left.

Party chiefs also know that reopening the nomination process would probably result in chaos.

Radical activists are furious at the party establishment over its support for Israel's war in Gaza. 

Disorder could break out on the streets, as happened at the 1968 convention in the same city, also the last time a Democratic president withdrew during the election cycle. 

That year, Lyndon B. Johnson stood aside and the party machine tried to install his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, against the will of voters enraged by the Vietnam War.

This year history might repeat itself not as tragedy, but as farce.

Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator