Biden campaign insists president ‘staying in this race’ despite reports he’s wavering

– President Biden’s re-election campaign is pushing back against a slew of reports in the past 24 hours that the president has become more receptive in the last couple of days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his 2024 re-election run.

‘Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,’ Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning near the site of the Republican National Convention.

Fulks emphasized that ‘the president has said it several times. He’s staying in this race’ and ‘we look forward to him accepting the delegates in Chicago and continuing with this race to talk about what’s at stake.’

Following his disastrous debate performance last month in his face-to-face showdown with former President Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, the 81-year-old Biden has been facing questions about whether he has the physical and mental capabilities to serve another four years in the most demanding job in the world.

And politically, Biden’s been pushing back against a rising chorus of calls to end his campaign from elected Democrats, who are deeply concerned about the possibility of the party not only losing the White House but both houses of Congress in the fall election.

Reports over the past 24 hours indicated that top Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – have had frank conversations with Biden about the president ending his campaign.

Asked a second time at the news conference if Biden may consider stepping aside, Fulks responded that the president ‘is not wavering on anything. The president has made his decision. I don’t want to be rude, but I do not know how many more times we can answer that. Joe Biden has said he is running for president of the United States. Our campaign is moving forward.’