The White House has rubbished New York Times report that President Joe Biden told his allies that he is considering quitting the presidential race.
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported an anonymous source saying of Biden, “He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place,” referring to last week’s presidential debate in which Biden did poorly.
The newspaper reported that the president’s conversation is the first indication that he is seriously considering whether he can recover after a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta.
The newspaper quoted Biden’s ally as saying that the president understood that he faced an uphill battle to convince voters, donors and the political class that his debate performance was an anomaly.
It added that President Biden had told a key ally that he knew he might not be able to salvage his candidacy if he could not 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 must go well, particularly an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and 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 halting and unfocused performance in the debate.
“The person, who talked to the president in the past 24 hours, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
But Andrew Bates, White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President, said the New York Times’ report was false.
In tweets on X, Bates said “this claim is absolutely false and if we had been given more than 7 minutes we could have communicated this before it was publicized.
“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.”
