AP Photo/Gerald Herbert , File
On Wednesday, the White House called "absolutely false" New York Times report saying President Joe Biden told an ally he was weighing whether to stay in the presidential race.
The report was based on a conversation believed Times, Biden met with an anonymous “key ally” who was said to have said the president knew he needed to quickly reassure the public he was still capable of doing this, Reuters reported.
Biden's lackluster debate performance against Republican rival Donald Trump in Atlanta last week led to some Democrats calling for Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
In a post on Platform X, the White House press secretary Andrew Bates wrote that “this claim is absolutely false.” The press secretary's comment was posted alongside an image of a New York Times article that was headlined: “Biden told an ally he is weighing whether to stay in the race.”
The Times report does not say Biden has explicitly said he is reconsidering his re-election bid. The report quoted an ally as saying that Biden knows that if he has two more similar events, by the end of the weekend “there will be a completely different situation.”
CNN later reported a similar conversation with an unnamed ally who said Biden was “in the know.” In its reporting, CNN reported that Biden privately confided to an ally that the next leg of the road is critical to whether he can stay in the race.
"Ratings fall, fundraising dries up and interviews go poorly. He's in the know,”– CNN quoted an ally as saying.
The president said he was tired during the debate after two trips abroad. White House officials said he had a cold. The Biden campaign has held talks with donors to mitigate the fallout and plans to meet with Democratic governors later on Wednesday, July 3.
Prepared by Sergei Daga