US President Joe Biden has no way to recover from the debate disaster and needs to drop out of the race, multiple campaign aides have told NBC News.
The 81-year-old Democrat has been under increasing public pressure from the media, senior party members, donors, and celebrity sympathizers to step down after a catastrophic performance in the June 27 debate with Republican challenger Donald Trump.
“No one is denying that the debate was a setback,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a memo to staff, leaked to NBC on Thursday. “But Joe Biden and this campaign have made it through setbacks before.”
Others were more blunt. “He needs to drop out,” one Biden campaign official told NBC, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He will never recover from this.”
“No one involved in the effort thinks he has a path,” said a second campaign aide.
Another campaign worker described Biden’s chances of winning the November…