- Biden is reportedly due to meet with family members at Camp David to discuss the future of the campaign.
- The trip had been planned for some time, but its purpose changed after Biden’s tough debate performance.
- Over the past 48 hours, a wave of influential allies has called on Biden to resign.
President Joe Biden is expected to meet with family members at Camp David on Sunday to discuss the future of his campaign, according to multiple reports.
For Biden, a former U.S. senator and vice president, this will be one of the most difficult decisions of his long political career.
The pre-planned trip is a chance for the whole family, including children and grandchildren, to pose for family photos and a chance for private meetings with perhaps the most influential people in Biden’s life: his family, who played a key role in his decision to run for president in 2020.
The family gathering came after Biden’s panned performance in Thursday’s debate with former President Donald Trump, during which he struggled with a raspy voice and incoherent responses, rekindling concerns about his age.
In his exchange with Biden, Trump sought to paint the president as incompetent both at home and on the international stage, making unfounded claims about immigration and crime rates and slamming the president’s son, Hunter Biden, in the process.
Now, 48 hours after the debate, donors and other supporters are calling on Biden to step aside, a plea made by The New York Times editorial board last week.
Outside a fundraiser on Saturday in East Hampton, New York, several Biden voters held signs calling for him to drop out of the race.The weekend was centered on Democratic debate over who might succeed Biden.
The short 90-minute debate performance appeared to raise the most serious challenge to Biden’s presidency to date, but his campaign has fought back forcefully, trying to redirect the party’s messaging to focus on the general election, and Biden himself has so far shown no intention of dropping out of the race.
At a campaign event in the battleground state of North Carolina on Friday, Biden publicly responded to his struggles in the debate.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I may not walk as easily as I used to, I may not talk as smoothly as I used to, I may not debate as well as I used to, but what I do know is how to tell the truth,” he told the crowd in a much more energetic speech than his previous night’s debate speech.
In response to reports that Biden plans to discuss the future of his campaign with his family this weekend, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates denied the reports, saying on The X Show that the Camp David visit was announced on June 23, before the debate.
