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Both David and I have written about the stream of media effluvium flowing from anonymous sources that claim Joe Biden will withdraw from the race. That still continues this morning, to which I’ll return in a moment. Since yesterday afternoon, however, the White House and the Biden campaign have shifted to offense in rebutting this claims on the record, as we also documented in nearly real time yesterday as developments emerged.
That counter-campaign continued today on Morning Joe, the MSNBC show whose hosts called for Biden to exit the race yesterday and accused his aides of financial motives for keeping him in place. Willie Geist asked Biden campaign chair to address the rumors, which Jen O’Malley Dillon rejected entirely:
« We’ve believed from the beginning that this is a state-by-state race. It is a race about issues. And when we are able to fight on the issues, we are able to win. »
Biden campaign chair @jomalleydillon responds to concerns Biden could cost Democrats the House and Senate pic.twitter.com/1ZMGxfWtsw— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) July 19, 2024
President Joe Biden’s campaign chair is acknowledging that he has “seen some slippage in support” but that he is “absolutely” still in the race and can still beat former President Donald Trump.
Biden reelection campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told MSNBC on Friday that the growing calls for Biden to leave the race have made for difficult moments. But she insisted Biden isn’t dropping out and “we have multiple pathways to victory.”
Dillon is both right and wrong about the polls. Geist notes that most of the battleground results we’ve seen from this week still show Biden within or close to the margin of error, meaning that Biden remains competitive.
