Biden meets family at Camp David as calls to exit the race grow
Gerald Herbert/AP
- Biden will meet with his family at Camp David to discuss the future of his campaign, reports say.
- The trip was planned long in advance but the purpose has shifted after Biden's rough debate.
- A chorus of influential supporters have called on Biden to step aside in the last 48 hours.
Today, President Joe Biden will meet his family at Camp David to discuss the future of his election campaign, according to multiple reports.
It will likely be one of the most agonizing decisions of his long political life.
The pre-planned trip — a chance for the entire family, children and grandchildren included, to take a family photo — is a timely opportunity for a private meeting among the people who are perhaps most influential in Biden's life. His family played a key role in his decision to run in 2020.
The discussion follows Biden's disastrous debate performance against former president Donald Trump on Thursday night. During the debate, Biden struggled with a raspy voice and rambling answers that renewed concerns about his age.
In the 48 hours since the debate, a chorus of donors and other supporters have called on Biden to step aside. The New York Times editorial board did the same. Outside a fundraising event on Saturday, voters who support Biden held signs asking him to exit the race. The weekend was dominated by debates about who could take Biden's place.
In just 90 minutes, Biden's debate performance seems to have sparked the most serious challenge to his presidency yet. Biden's campaign, however, has largely pushed back. And Biden himself has made no indication that he would step down.
The president publicly responded to his debate struggles on Friday.
"Folks, I might not walk as easily or talk as smoothly as I used to. I might not debate as well as I used to. But what I do know is how to tell the truth," he said at a rally in North Carolina.
In response to the reports that Biden would discuss his campaign with his family, Andrew Bates, the White House senior deputy press secretary, said on X that the Camp David trip was pre-planned and dismissed the reports.