Biden aides discussing how to pitch him on standing aside
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A small group of President Joe Biden’s closest aides and confidantes have begun to huddle for closely-held discussions on how best to convince him to be the first American president to stand down from seeking a second term since Lyndon Johnson bowed out of the 1968 presidential race amid the tumult of the Vietnam War.
The select cadre of Biden advisers — some from the president’s campaign and some from within his White House staff — have been brainstorming what the strongest possible arguments and pitches would be for the purpose of selling the famously-stubborn 81-year-old chief executive on passing the torch to another candidate who would take up the Democratic Party’s fight against Donald Trump in the November general election.
Some have begun to recognize the gravity of his situation as polls have shown his support faltering as donations to his campaign have slowed since the debate.
One adviser who spoke to NBC News was blunt in their assessment, telling the network: “He needs to drop out — he will never recover from this.”
A person close to the Biden campaign told The Independent there is a growing realization within the re-election brain trust that Biden currently has no path to succeed in a quest for a second term, while a second official who spoke to NBC said “no one involved in the effort” believes he can defeat Trump at this point.
The existence of the discussions, which were first reported by The New York Times, were also acknowledged by a person familiar with them who did not dispute their existence when asked about the Times reporting by The Independent, though a Biden campaign spokesperson, senior adviser TJ Ducklo, flatly denied any such talks have taken place.
“Patently false. This team stands with the president,” he said in a statement.
Biden has spent the two weeks since his disastrous prime-time debate with Donald Trump attempting damage control with a series of interviews and appearances meant to demonstrate his vitality and vigor in comparison to the shuffling, mumbling and wraith-like figure who appeared on the Atlanta debate stage and often had trouble finishing complete thoughts.
He has spent the last few days on a whirlwind schedule while hosting heads of state and government from NATO at the alliance’s annual summit, and is set to hold his first open press conference on home soil since 2022 this evening.
The president has steadfastly refused to consider stepping away from the presidential race and has insisted that he is the best person to take on Trump, largely because he is the only person to have defeated him before.
But some of his advisers have become convinced that Biden, the oldest man ever to run for or serve as president, cannot recover from the self-inflicted damage caused by his debate performance, which opened proverbial floodgates to a deluge of negative reporting on his age and how it has affected his mental capacity.
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