The White House has refuted claims that President Joe Biden is considering withdrawing from the upcoming presidential election.The White House has refuted claims that President Joe Biden is considering withdrawing from the upcoming presidential election. Andrew Bates, a White House official, dismissed a report in the New York Times claiming that Biden had communicated to associates his intentions to possibly drop out of the race. Bates characterized the report as “absolutely false” and expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of time given for a response, stating, “If the New York Times had given us more than 7 minutes to comment, we would have told them.” The New York Times report sourced its information from an anonymous source who stated that Biden acknowledged the potential impact of a poor showing in future events, similar to his performance in the previous week’s presidential debate. The anonymous source suggested that Biden recognized the challenges he would face in persuading voters, donors, and the political community that his debate performance was an anomaly. According to the report, Biden shared with a close ally his concerns about the situation, acknowledging the necessity of strong upcoming appearances to demonstrate his suitability for the presidency. This communication was seen as an indication that Biden is seriously contemplating his ability to recover from his debate performance. The White House’s swift denial of the report underscores Biden’s continued determination to pursue his presidential campaign. Despite a challenging debate performance, Biden remains optimistic about his chances of winning the election, as evidenced by his planned events in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The White House has dismissed reports that President Joe Biden is considering dropping out of the presidential race.
Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary and deputy assistant to the president, called the New York Times report inaccurate.
Bates wrote the following on X: “This claim is absolutely false and if we had more than 7 minutes we could have communicated this before it was released.
“That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had given us more than 7 minutes to comment, we would have told them.”
Bates was responding to a report in the New York Times that Biden had informed allies that he was considering withdrawing from the presidential race.
The newspaper quoted an anonymous source as saying of Biden: “He knows that if he does an event like this twice more, we will be in a different situation,” referring to last week’s presidential debate, in which Biden performed poorly.
The newspaper said the president’s conversation was the first indication that he is seriously considering whether he can recover from a devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta.
The newspaper quoted Biden’s ally as saying the president understood the uphill battle it would take to convince voters, donors and the political class that his debate performance was an exception.
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 was fit for the job, after a disastrous debate performance last week.
The president, who the ally said is still locked in a fierce re-election battle, understands that his next appearances ahead of the long weekend must go well, notably an interview scheduled for Friday with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and campaign visits to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
