President Joe Biden has reportedly told a key ally that he knows his next few public appearances will determine if he stays in the race.
The New York Times reports that Biden knows he must perform well in his Friday interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, as well as during 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 disastrous performance in the debate.
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Quentin Fulks, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, quickly appeared on CNN to call the Times story “false”.
Fulks said “the president is in this race to win it” despite “a number of rumors floating out there.”
Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary, reiterated that the story was false on X, saying “If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so.”
The same ally quoted in The New York Times story reportedly told CNN Biden “sees the moment” and is “clear-eyed.”
“The polls are plummeting, the fundraising is drying up, and the interviews are going badly. He’s not oblivious,” the person said.
In private conversations on Tuesday, Biden “blamed himself” for his poor debate performance.
“He said: ‘I have done way too much foreign policy,’” a source told CNN. The president believes that his back-to-back trips to France and Italy, and the subsequent jet lag and exhaustion, contributed to his frozen moment during the debate.
This is the first public indication that Biden is considering falling on his sword in order to save his party from a Donald Trump victory in November.
Biden reportedly opening the door to dropping out of the 2024 presidential race is a major development, with sources around the Biden campaign and DNC telling The Daily Beast in recent days that an acknowledgement of stepping aside is tantamount to actually doing it.
Biden’s debate performance sent the Democratic Party into chaos, leading to private conversations about whether he should step down as the nominee.
Those discussions quickly evolved into public ones over whether Vice President Kamala Harris should take over as the nominee, or, in an even more far-fetched scenario, whether someone could convince her to also step aside and open the door for a brokered convention.
Biden appears to be relying on Harris more than ever. ABC News reports that they are scheduled to have one of their occasional private lunches on Wednesday, and the vice president was belatedly added to the schedule for his Fourth of July celebration at the White House on Thursday.
Should Biden announce he’s withdrawing from the race many within the party believe that he might also have to resign from the presidency.
