The Biden campaign and the White House have been pushing back hard against calls for him to drop out of the 2020 presidential race, but according to a new report out Wednesday, Joe Biden is, in fact, considering withdrawing from the race.
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But, there’s a catch.
“President Biden has told a key ally that he knows he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up for the job after a disastrous debate performance last week,” reports the New York Times. “The president, who the ally emphasized is still deeply in the fight for re-election, understands that his next few appearances heading into the holiday weekend must go well, particularly an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”
“He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place” by the end of the weekend, said the ally, referring to Mr. Biden’s halting and unfocused performance in the debate. The person, who talked to the president in the past 24 hours, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said the report was “absolutely false” and that the White House had not been given enough time to respond.
The conversation is the first indication to become public that the president is seriously considering whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday. Concerns are mounting about his viability as a candidate and whether he could serve as president for another four years.
A top adviser to Mr. Biden, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation, said the president was “well aware of the political challenge he faces.”
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I don’t care what the White House says about the report being false. They’ve been lying for years about Biden’s health, and they’ve recently described videos of Biden’s senior moments as “cheap fakes.” So, they have a major credibility problem.
Related: Replacing Biden Would Be a Political and Legal Nightmare for the DNC
CNN separately reported that Biden “has privately acknowledged that the next stretch of days are critical to whether he can save his reelection bid for president, making clear to an ally Tuesday that he understands what would prompt him to accept: ‘It’s just not working.'”
It is not clear if the source for the CNN story is the same as the source for the New York Times story.
One thing Biden has going for him is that, as CNN’s Harry Enten reported, the most recent Reuters poll shows that two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to stay in the race.
A big issue with getting Biden out? Democrats don’t want Biden to leave the race. The voters who could pressure their elected leaders want Biden to stay in.
The data right now don’t look like Truman (52) or Johnson (68). They look a lot more like Bush (92), who stayed in & lost pic.twitter.com/HxmyO57fQP
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) July 3, 2024
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Post-debate polling has been mixed, with some polls showing Biden performing better against Trump than Democrat alternatives and some showing him performing worse. These polls still show Trump ahead, however, suggesting the dynamics of this race are baked into the cake.