Biden to meet family despite pressure to resign after debate | Joe Biden

Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with his family on Sunday to discuss his political future in a meeting planned before Thursday’s debate.

The Camp David meeting comes as pressure has mounted on Biden following the widespread fallout from the debate, in which his faltering performance exposed his vulnerabilities in a tight election and prompted calls from pundits, the media and voters for him to step down.

Insiders told NBC News that it will ultimately be Biden and first lady Jill Biden who make the crucial decisions about his campaign. So far, at rallies and events following Thursday’s debate, the Bidens have shown no signs of changing course, describing the debate as a one-off bad day and doubling down on their 2020 electoral success against Donald Trump.

“I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t talk as easily as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Biden said at a more energetic rally in North Carolina on Friday, responding to widespread criticism of his performance Thursday. “But I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth.” He highlighted Trump’s long litany of lies and misinformation during the debate.

His campaign also called the debate a media frenzy.

“It’s a familiar story: After Thursday night’s debate, the fringe class is shutting out Joe Biden,” Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon said in the memo. “The data from battleground states, however, tell a different story.”

But the Associated Press reported a tense call among members of the Democratic National Committee and his campaign team.

“I was hoping for a more substantive conversation rather than like, ‘Hey, let’s go ahead and just be cheerleaders,’ without actually addressing a very serious issue that was played out on American television and millions of people could see,” said Joe Salazar, an elected member of the Colorado DNC who was on the call.

“There were a number of things that could have been said to remedy the situation. But we didn’t get that. We were switched on.

Although some Democratic lawmakers privately expressed concerns and hope that Biden would drop out of the race during the convention, they remained largely steadfast in their public support for Biden’s campaign.

During the weekend’s events, Vice President Kamala Harris also sought to reiterate her support for Biden and put to rest rumors that she was seeking to replace him.

“In the Oval Office negotiating bipartisan deals, I see him in the Situation Room keeping our country safe,” she said Friday during a speech in Las Vegas. And at a fundraiser in California on Saturday, she sought to appease donors, who have reportedly been shaky in their support for the president since Thursday.

“Because we’ve been in this fight before, I say with confidence that we will win,” Harris said. “We will know what we stand for, so we will know what to fight for.”

Biden himself appealed to his donors this weekend at a series of events in New York and New Jersey. “I promise you, we are going to win this election,” he said.

Meanwhile, in snap polls taken after Thursday’s debate, voters continue to show low confidence in the president and his future. Biden’s approval rating has weakened since he took office and concerns about his age and his handling of crises both at home and abroad after Thursday are under more scrutiny than ever.

The Democrats’ future is fraught with uncertainty. None of Biden’s potential replacements has more support than the president himself, and the threat of a Trump presidency and its impact on key domestic and foreign policy issues leaves little room for error.

Sunday’s internal meeting followed calls with Biden’s leadership team. But the conversation he’s having with Jill Biden and her children and grandchildren could shed more light on what’s next this election year.