Biden admits he may have to drop out in days if post-debate events don’t go well: report
President Biden told campaign staff Wednesday that he would stay in the 2024 race to the bitter end, but reportedly told a close ally that he may have to drop out if his campaign can’t get back on track in the coming days.
“I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win because when Democrats unite, we will always win. Just as we beat Donald Trump in 2020, we’re going to beat him again in 2024,” Biden, 81, told aides to his re-election effort on a call, imploring them to “link arms, let’s get this done — you, me, the vice president, together!”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who also was on the campaign call, said: “We will not back down. We will follow our president’s lead. We will fight, and we will win.”
But in more private settings, Biden has apparently pinned his re-election’s future on an ABC News interview and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over the holiday weekend, the New York Times reported, citing an unnamed source.
“He knows if he has two more events like [the debate], we’re in a different place,” the ally told the outlet.
The Times report marked the first evidence that Biden is considering giving up on his bid for a second term after he and his team repeatedly rejected the possibility following the first of two scheduled debates with Trump June 27.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates claimed the report was “absolutely false.”
“If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so,” Bates tweeted shortly after the story was published.
However, one of Biden’s top advisers — who wasn’t named — admitted the incumbent was “well aware of the political challenge he faces.”
Within the past 24 hours, Biden has spoken with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday, after The Post and other outlets revealed Tuesday that Biden had yet to make direct contact with top Capitol Hill Democrats since the debate.
Wednesday evening, the president was expected to meet with more than 20 Democratic governors at the White House in a bid to further shore up support.
Biden would be 86 if he completes a full second term in January 2029.
Polls have shown the electorate moving toward Trump, 78, after Biden spent 90 minutes stumbling over his words and losing his train of thought during the CNN forum in Atlanta.
The White House initially blamed Biden’s poor performance on a cold, while the president himself told donors Tuesday night he had almost fallen asleep on stage due to the rigors of two foreign trips earlier in June.
However, the disclosure has only raised new questions about Biden’s fitness for office, since he spent a full week prepping for the debate with advisers at Camp David, during which time was reportedly allotted for the president to take afternoon naps.
Jean-Pierre refused to say at her Wednesday briefing whether the nap schedule, also reported by the Times on Tuesday, was accurate.
Meanwhile, sources told The Post Monday night that antsy Democratic donors have given Biden a two-week grace period for his poll numbers to recover.
A source privy to a call with top campaign contributors had said that any decline in polling numbers after that period would lead to a new push to remove Biden from the ticket, likely to be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Additional reporting by Lydia Moynihan and Josh Christenson
