President Joe Biden has apparently told close aides that he may be ready to call it a career after last week’s disastrous debate performance, according to The New York Times, though not long after the report broke, White House spokesman Andrew Bates immediately pushed back, saying, “That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so.”
The report comes amid rising calls for Biden to drop out after he appeared vacant, confused, and unable to clearly speak during the debate with former President Donald Trump. The Times noted:
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.
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 — including an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — must go well.
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Mr. Biden is slowly reaching out to Democratic elected officials and has a meeting with Democratic governors at the White House scheduled for Wednesday evening. He is also continuing to reach out to people he has long trusted and has told at least one person that he is open to the possibility that his plans to move on from his debate performance — and flip the focus back to his challenger, Mr. Trump — may not work.
Major Democratic donors are firm that President Joe Biden should step aside as the party’s presidential nominee after his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump. While Biden’s family members and most avid supporters are pitching that the president just had a bad night in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, Politico reported that many Democrats are concerned about the 81-year-old chief executive’s fitness going forward.
A survey from Suffolk University/USA Today released on Monday revealed that nearly one-third of voters are now more inclined to support Trump after the first presidential debate. Additionally, most respondents believe that Democrats should consider replacing Biden as their nominee.
“For Biden’s own good and the good of the country, he should step aside immediately,” major Democrat donor and former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson told DailyMail.com. “The fact that it has now been three days and Biden has done nothing to reassure us confirms my worst fears.” After Biden’s surrogates claimed that he did okay during the debate and that it did not change anyone’s mind, Tilson responded: “They’re p***ing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. It’s insulting. How stupid do they think we are?”
Reuters reported that Biden’s reelection team had difficult phone calls on Sunday and Monday with important campaign funders. The funders questioned whether the chief executive should stay in the presidential race and why they should keep donating after his dismal debate performance. The campaign’s National Finance Committee urgently convened a call on Monday evening with hundreds of top Democrat donors and fundraisers for Biden’s campaign to quell panic, as reported by multiple sources familiar with the call, Newsmax reported.
“The smartest thing is to think through how you [as influential outsiders] operate, assuming no change,” Democrat fundraiser and strategist Dmitri Mehlhorn said, CNN reported. “And if there’s no change, if Biden wants to remain president, then any kind of a pressure campaign is just a waste of time and energy and effort and money.”
Anonymous sources reportedly close to President Biden have allegedly witnessed “15 or 20 occasions in the last year and a half” similar to what the country saw at last week’s presidential debate, when he appeared vacant, unable to enunciate his words, and confused, CNN’s Carl Bernstein told Anderson Cooper Monday night, referring to the debate.
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