President Biden has told a key ally that he knows he may not be able to salvage his victory if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up to the job after last week’s disastrous debate performance.
The president, whose allies stress he is still in a reelection battle, knows his next few appearances before the holidays — including a scheduled interview Friday with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — must go well.
“He knows that if he had two more events like this, we would be in a different place” by the end of the week, said the ally, referring to Mr. Biden’s hesitant and unfocused performance during the debate. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.
After the article was published, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said the article was “completely false” and that the White House had not had enough time to respond.
The conversation is the first public sign that the president is seriously considering whether he can recover from his disastrous performance on the debate stage in Atlanta on Thursday, raising concerns about his reelection prospects and whether he can serve another four years as president.
A senior adviser to Mr Biden, who also requested anonymity to discuss the situation, said the president was “fully aware of the political challenge he faces”.
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Campaign officials are anxiously watching the polls, realizing that bad numbers could exacerbate the crisis. CBS News Poll on Wednesday showed former President Donald J. Trump leading Mr. Biden since the debate by 50 percent to 48 percent nationally and 51 percent to 48 percent in battleground states.
Mr. Biden is slowly reaching out to Democratic elected officials and has a meeting with Democratic governors at the White House scheduled for Wednesday night. He is also continuing to reach out to people he has long trusted and has told at least one that he is open to the possibility that his plan to move on from his debate performance — and turn the focus back to his opponent, Mr. Trump — might not work.
Some Biden allies, who have gathered with family and advisers since Thursday’s debate, have stressed that the president is still in the political fight and largely sees the moment as an opportunity to come back from a setback, as he has done many times over his half-century career.
But they say he is also clear-eyed about the uphill battle to convince voters, donors and the political establishment that his debate performance is an anomaly.
