Biden RESPONDS after reports he’s mulling stepping down: Follow along for U.S. politics live updates

Emily Goodin, senior U.S. political reporter at the White House

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called into a campaign staff meeting on Wednesday to give them a pep talk.

Biden told them he’s staying in the race and going to win.

‘Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running…no one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win,’ he said, according to reports.

Biden and Harris were having lunch at the White House on Wednesday. His statement comes amid reports he’s told allies he’s considering an exit plan.

The president and his team have engaged in a massive outreach campaign to reassure nervous staff, lawmakers, donors and allies of Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.

Former President Donald Trump has been surprisingly quiet in recent days, lessening his normal barrage of personal attacks towards President Joe Biden just as Democrats are frantically huddling to plan a path forward for the party.

Since the debate with the presidents last Thursday, chaos has engulfed the White House as staffers, reporters and lawmakers down the road on Capitol Hill are wondering if Biden is capable of running for reelection.

Trump has made the rounds posting polls that prove positive for the former president and claimed a recent Supreme Court ruling as a victory but has less so gone on the attack against Biden’s age.

The former president is known for his fierce criticism of his opponents, and just when Biden appears to be his weakest, Trump seems to be laying off and letting the Democrats handle the situation.

‘I’m gonna show up and, you know, I’m gonna campaign, whether it’s him (Biden) or somebody else,’ he said this week.

Donald Trump now leads President Joe Biden 49 percent to 43 percent among likely voters nationally, according to a new New York Times/Siena poll conducted following the debate.

It’s a three-point swing toward the Republican presumptive presidential nominee from just a week ago before the debate.

The six point gap is the largest lead Trump has had on Biden in the poll since 2015.

Among registered voters, Trump leads 49 percent to 41 percent the poll found.

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., 83, had a long private conversation with Joe Biden Wednesday as the president looks to shore up his party’s support, according to POLITICO.

”Congressman Clyburn had a very long conversation with President Biden on Wednesday. The substance of that call will remain private,’ his spokesperson said.

Clyburn is credited with helping Biden turn around his 2020 campaign after it got off to a rocky start losing several primaries and causes.

Then the South Carolinian gathered his supporters around Biden, he won his first state and went on to secure the nomination after the tectonic momentum shift.

Earlier in the day, Clyburn mentioned on CNN how he had not been contacted by the president.

From Rob Crilly, Chief U.S. Political Correspondent

A majority of voters believes that President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week was not caused by a cold or too much preparation but by dementia.

That is the damning finding of an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com.

Only 10 percent of respondents said they believed a cold was to blame, rejecting the official White House explanation for why the president struggled to answer questions or hold his train of thought during a 90-minute showdown with Donald Trump.

At the same time, it reveals that Trump, 78, has extended his lead over 81-year-old Biden to six points, deepening the crisis facing the president’s reelection campaign.

The White House has already had to fend off questions about whether the president is ‘disabled’ in a sign of how Biden’s health moved to the center of the contest this week.

Emily Goodin, senior U.S. political reporter at the White House

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients began his all-hands-on-deck call with White House staff by telling them: ‘July 4th is one of my favorite holidays.’

He acknowledged President Joe Biden didn’t have a great debate performance last week but told staff that he’s a ‘great president’ and urged them to ‘stay together.’

‘He didn’t have a great night but that was one night and what we all know is he is a great president,’ Zients said per reports.

He made three key points: keep your head down and keep working for the American people while the campaign handles the election; hold your head high as the administration has accomplished so much; and stick together.

‘Execute, execute, execute,’ he told them repeatedly while urging them to ignore outside noise.

The call lasted about 10 minutes. Zients didn’t take questions but said concerned staff should email him. He repeated Biden’s quote that when you get knocked down, you get back up.

‘That’s what he is doing and that’s what we all need to do … follow the president’s lead,’ he said.

President Joe Biden had a call Wednesday morning with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Democrat in Congress.

Biden is in communication with party leaders on the heels of his disastrous debate performance, which has imperiled his reelection bid.

Punchbowl News first reported Biden’s conversation with Schumer.

He also spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, and Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a longtime political ally from his home state, Punchbowl said.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Biden told a key ally he is mulling over whether he should drop out of the race – a report the White House denied.

Biden will host a Fourth of July gathering at the White House Thursday before hitting the campaign trail again.

He’ll travel to Wisconsin Friday and Pennsylvania Sunday – events he knows have to go well, according to the Times’ reporting.

Former President Barack Obama is privately concerned about Joe Biden’s reelection chances as Democrats pile on to get him to step down.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Obama told allies that Biden has a more difficult path to winning in November.

That’s due to his disastrous debate performance last Thursday, sparking concerns about his age and ability to lead.

Publicly, Obama is standing firmly with his friend Joe.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are having lunch together in the midst of a massive call for the president to step aside after this debate performance.

The two oftentimes have lunch together and it is frequently part of the president’s official schedule for the day.

Some float that Harris could replace Biden on the 2024 ticket, but polls show that she polls even worse than the President in a match-up against Donald Trump in November.

The lunch comes as the vice president tweaks her schedule to remain cozy with her boss after the debate debacle.

Prediction markets are now solidly favoring Kamala Harris to get the Democratic nomination in 2024.

The site PredictIt shows Harris has surged to become the favorite over the last few days, rising from 37 percent odds to be the nominee to now 49 percent.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s chances of getting the party’s backing have dropped from 44 percent to 28 percent.

The first sitting Democrat to call for Joe Biden to withdraw from the election says that before going public, party leadership did not try to keep him quiet.

Texas Democrat Rep. Lloyd Doggett, 77, came forward on Tuesday with a statement calling on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, saying if he did not Donald Trump would win the White House.

Breaking his silence after turning on the top Democrat, the Texan – who has served since 1995 – told NPR that leadership within the party did not dissuade him from airing out his concerns publicly.

‘I’m not a vulnerable member in this election,’ Doggett said. ‘So I’m able to step forward and speak out about what I think is so critical for our country in ways that perhaps some other people have not.’

‘But I certainly have not gotten any discouragement from within the leadership of the party,’ he added, indicating that top Democrats may actually condone ousting Biden.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

President Joe Biden told a close ally that he doesn’t think he can salvage his campaign after his train wreck debate with Donald Trump last week.

It is the first real sign that the president is considering dropping out of the race amid calls for a new candidate.

The deciding factor, a key ally told The New York Times, could be Biden’s campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this weekend. They said of the president’s thinking:

He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place.

Another report states the Biden ally said it’s ‘only a matter of time’ until he drops out.

But Biden’s Deputy spokesperson Andrew Bates insisted in a post on X moments after the article went live that the reporting is ‘absolutely false.’ He complained the NYT only gave the team seven minutes to reply to a request for comment.

Emily Goodin, senior U.S. political reporter

The White House is struggling to calm the storm of outrage from Joe Biden’s debate performance as Democratic lawmakers call for the president to exit the race and the White House staff are ‘freaking the f*** out.’

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients is scheduled to hold an all-hands-on-deck staff call at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to pump up disillusioned staff and reassure them that Biden will remain the nominee.

The president has been on the phone to lawmakers trying to shore up his support on Capitol Hill amid worries Republicans will take control of the House and Senate – along with the White House – in the upcoming elections, giving them unchecked power to run the country.

Biden also will meet with governors on Wednesday evening as he and his team scramble to stem even more defections.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Now a group of business leaders are calling for Joe Biden to step down for a replacement Democratic nominee.

Leadership Now Project is the latest entity expressing it wants to see a different candidate on the ticket in 2024 other than the incumbent president after his disastrous debate performance.

The group wrote in a statement responding to the debate:

We have heard from many individuals who share our deep concerns about the present course but fear speaking out.

President Joe Biden’s campaign sent out an all-staff memo showing internal polls from battleground states that note Biden only dropped half a point in the fallout from his debate performance.

The memo acknowledges fears that Biden will see a substantial drop in the polls after his fumbling in the debate.

‘We are going to see a few polls come out today and we want you all to hear from us on what we know internally and what we expect to come externally,’ the memo, obtained by Politico, reads.

‘Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate — it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race.’

The Five Thirty Eight polling average has Donald Trump leading Biden nationally by two points. The former president also leads in many of the swing states that will decide the election.

Biden has thus far rejected the pressure, insisting he could still beat Trump come November, but should the 81-year-old change course and bow out of the race, there are a series of hurdles other Democratic candidates could face.

One of the biggest challenges: how to raise a massive sum of cash to take on Trump in a short amount of time. Biden’s massive campaign war chest would not necessarily flow to a replacement for the president at the top of the ticket.

And that is a considerable amount of money they could be leaving on the table.

Emily Goodin, senior U.S. political reporter

President Joe Biden on Wednesday will award the Medal of Honor to two Union soldiers who stole a train deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War in what is known as Great Locomotive Chase.

U.S. Army Pvts. Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson were part of a group of soldiers who hijacked a train named The General, drive it north for 87 miles, destroying railroad tracks and telegraph lines along the way.

They were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Six of the participants became the Army´s first recipients of the then-newly created Medal of Honor. Over the next two decades, another 13 members were recognized for their role in mission but Shadrach and Wilson were not honored until now.

Their posthumous recognition comes as the legacy of the Civil War still shapes American politics in a contentious election year where race, constitutional rights and presidential power are a major issue.

The ceremony will take place in the East Room of the White House Wednesday afternoon.

Hunter Biden has joined White House meetings this week after spending the weekend at Camp David with his dad on the heels of President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance.

NBC News reported Tuesday on Hunter’s presence on calls and in meetings on the White House campus as the 81-year-old president’s political future hangs in the balance.

Hunter was convicted last month on felony gun charges and is still under indictment for tax crimes though ‘popped into’ a couple of meetings, one source said.

There’s growing uproar within the White House over President Joe Biden’s shockingly feeble debate.

It’s now becoming a full-blown party revolt as two sitting Democrats are bucking Biden and saying they want another candidate on the top of the ticket, with a third saying he can’t win.

The president will try and reassure Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday as an all-staff White House meeting is set to occur at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Aides told Axios: ‘Everyone is freaking the f*** out.’

While other former Democrats and liberal pundits have speculated on Biden’s ability to hold the presidency through 2028, should he win, two elected members of the party’s Congressional delegation have called on him to drop out Tuesday.

Now, pollster Ipsos tested several elected an unelected Democrats head-to-head with Biden and only one would beat him, according to their survey.

A new CBS poll released Wednesday shows ex-President Donald Trump is up three points over President Biden across all battleground states nationwide, 48% to 51%.

He also has a two-point lead over the president in a national head-to-head matchup.

In another warning siren for Biden, the poll also showed a massive enthusiasm gap between the two candidates.

Democrats are not as likely to ‘definitely’ vote in November compared to Republicans.

At least 25 Democrat members of Congress are set to call on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race in the coming days, while a pair of Senators have distanced themselves from the ailing president.

The Democratic revolt in the House was expected to take place if Biden ‘seems shaky in coming days’ as one Democrat aide warned: ‘the dam is broken.’

In the Senate, it was revealed that centrist Joe Manchin needed to be pulled back from the brink as he prepared to become the first Biden ally to call for him to quit on one of the Sunday news shows.

‘Nobody wants to be the first one to knife Julius Caesar,’ a party insider said about Manchin’s predicament.