The New York Times reports that Biden is contemplating whether he should remain in the race, while a White House spokesman insists that the president is not contemplating that at all.
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.
“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 spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said the claim was “absolutely false” and that the White House had not been given enough time to respond.
Bates claimed that the Times gave the White House only seven minutes to comment. (Josh Barro shot back, “You’re the same guy who said Biden keeps a schedule that exhausts young staffers.”)
We should note that the Times report is plausible; Biden may well have either seen the devastating coverage in recent days or the reactions on Morning Joe, etc., and realized he embarrassed himself and isn’t sure he can’t avoid another colossal screw-up in the public eye. He’s in that body; he may well have a sense of whether he can go another four months without looking or sounding like a confused, forgetful old man.
We should also note that if Biden isn’t 100 percent sure he should keep running, he should not be running. I mean, he shouldn’t be running, period, but we shouldn’t have an 81-year-old POTUS with lingering doubts about his own ability to perform his duties.