In the wake of the Trump-Biden debate debacle on June 27 the president's campaign appealed to supporters to stand by their man.
"The bedwetting brigade is calling for Joe Biden to 'drop out.' That is the best possible way for Donald Trump to win and us to lose," Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty wrote in the email to the president's base.
Flaherty told Biden-backers how to respond to "your panicked aunt, your MAGA [Make America Great Again] uncle, or some self-important podcasters" who want the US president to withdraw from the race.
"First of all: Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, period. End of story. Voters voted. He won overwhelmingly," he insisted.
"And if he were to drop out, it would lead to weeks of chaos, internal foodfighting, and a bunch of candidates who limp into a brutal floor fight at the convention, all while Donald Trump has time to speak to American voters uncontested," Flaherty continued.
Joe Biden's performance during the debate reportedly shocked many of his supporters. According to Politico, Biden played "straight into Democrats’ worst fears that he’s fumbling away this election to Donald Trump."
"Joe Biden just had a 90-minute senior moment. The debate really was that bad," was the verdict of The Hill contributor Derek Hunter.
The New York Times editorial board issued a collective appeal to the president to drop out, arguing his debate appearance showed him to be "the shadow of a great public servant."
"Mr. Biden has been an admirable president," The NYT editors wrote. "But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election."
But the Biden campaign says he will not give up. At his rallies in North Carolina on June 28 and New Jersey on June 29, the sitting president insisted that even though he doesn’t "walk," "speak" and "debate" as "easy and smoothly" as he used to, he still knows how to do his job.
Last Friday, Politico raised the issue of how to replace Biden at the Democratic Party convention which kicks off on August 19. The current affairs website pointed out that even though Biden won around 95 percent of the nearly 4,000 delegates in this year's primaries, they were "pledged" but "not committed" to backing his candidacy.
Prior to the debate, Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh quoted political insiders who said the Democratic Party might replace Biden with another candidate depending on his performance in the showdown with Trump.