Hello from CNN, I'm Joe Beck.

With the five things you need to know for Thursday, July 4th.

Happy Independence Day.

President Joe Biden is in it to win it.

That was New York Governor Kathy Hockel, speaking to reporters after President Joe Biden met with nearly

every Democratic state leader in the US.

He was trying to reassure those governors that he is the right

candidate for the 2024 election after his performance in last week's presidential debate

raised some serious concerns. And all of us said we pledged our support to him because the stakes could not be higher.

But the meeting came just hours after a second sitting Democratic congressman called for Biden to step away from the campaign.

Now, under a microscope, the president will get a chance to address the public later this week

as well, when he sits down for an interview with ABC News on Friday.

Yesterday, there were reports he'd privately acknowledged that the next few days would be

critical to his campaign, and suggestions he was weighing whether to continue, but the White House

has denied that.

Wildfires in California is not a backcountry problem.

We're seeing fires on the coast in San Diego to the foothills and Bute.

That's Cal Fires Deputy Director Nick Schula, warning people that the prolonged heat wave in the west

is helping to fuel wildfires everywhere.

Shula says the state has seen a more than 600% increase in wildfires.

That's about 140,000 more acres burned in the first six months of this year.

This winter we enjoyed a lot of precipitation and that brought a lot of vegetation that was green just a few weeks ago.

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