Washington – President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a conference call with their entire campaign staff on Wednesday afternoon in which Biden made it clear he intends to continue campaigning, a source familiar with the call told CBS News. The Biden campaign is trying to limit the fallout from a shaky debate performance that sparked views that Biden may be ineligible to serve another term in office.
During the call, the president acknowledged the challenges he has faced in recent days but made clear his intention to continue his campaign and defeat former President Donald Trump in November.
“Let me be as clear as I can and as simple as I can: I'm running. I'm the Democratic candidate. Nobody is trying to get rid of me. I'm not leaving the party,” the president said, according to one of the sources.
The White House denied a New York Times report the same day that Biden had told unnamed allies he was considering whether to continue in the campaign, with a spokesman calling the report “categorically false.”
The Biden campaign and White House have downplayed the president's poor performance at the debate, saying he had a cold and insisting he will remain in the race. The president himself blamed the incident on his hectic travel schedule at a campaign event on Tuesday, saying it “wasn't very smart” to travel the world beforehand and claiming he “nearly fell asleep” onstage.
Biden met early Wednesday with key allies, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn, a senior South Carolina Democrat and a longtime friend. He also met Tuesday with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.
The outreach to leading Democrats came after major cracks began appearing Tuesday in Biden's dam of support from members of his own party. The first Democratic congressman The president has publicly called for him to drop out of the race, and “front line” House Democrats facing tough election battles this year have begun circulating letters urging the president to step down as the presumptive nominee, a Democrat told CBS News. “I think if enough people sign it, the dam will break,” he said.
A House Democratic leader told CBS News that at least 25 lawmakers were expected to sign the letter by Wednesday, and that the letter was expected to arrive “in the coming days.”
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While most Democrats continued to publicly support the president in the aftermath of the disastrous debate, dismissing questions about Biden's performance as simply a bad night, there has been a notable shift in recent days among some of the party's ranks, with many now willing to question the president's fitness for the job and offer their opinions on the way forward.
Some have made it clear that if he remains the party's nominee, Biden will need to convince voters, Democrats and donors that he is worthy of being the presidential nominee. Pelosi said on MSNBC on Tuesday that the president should “just sit back and be Joe” in an interview with “serious journalists.” The president is scheduled to sit down with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Friday in an interview that is expected to air over the weekend.
Meanwhile, concern is growing among donors. One Democratic donor, Whitney Tilson, has been openly advocating for the president to back out, telling CBS News that “the conversations have been constant – phone calls, emails, text messages.”
Among likely voters, the race has shifted slightly in Trump's favor after the debate, CBS News reported. vote Found: President Trump currently holds a 3-point lead over President Biden across battleground states and a 2-point lead nationally.
The President Meeting with Democratic Governor Biden's team is trying to keep party leaders in line, along with other Democrats, while Biden's campaign is scheduled to hold a rally at the White House on Wednesday evening.
If the president were to decide to drop out of the race, the path forward would be largely unknown. As the presumptive nominee, Biden has already been allocated a majority of the party's delegates. If Biden were to withdraw, the race would likely be contested at a convention later this summer unless the party quickly agrees on a replacement in advance. All eyes will almost certainly be on Harris While he seems an unlikely natural successor, interest has swirled in recent days around several potential replacements as a new generation prepares to take the party's helm.
The president's family is famously close to him, I encouraged him to continue competing. And the fight will continue over the weekend after the debate.
Jiang Weijia, Finn Gomez, Nicole Killion, Aaron Navarro, Ed O'Keefe and Matthew Mosk contributed reporting.
