A Biden campaign staffer reportedly asked voters to end their interviews with a New York Times reporter over the weekend after they gave comments critical of President Biden.
NYT politics fellow Simon Levien, who was reporting from a Las Vegas rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, said a Nevada Biden campaign staffer followed him as he was speaking with voters at the event and asked them to "end their interviews" when their comments became critical of Biden.
"One undecided voter, Stephen Stubbs, said he wished Biden would step aside and let Harris be the presidential nominee. The staffer interrupted, saying: ‘I’m going to stop it here, sorry, if I can. It’s a Biden event. Is that okay?’" Levien recalled.
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He added on X, formerly Twitter, that he asked the staffer why she interrupted the interviews, and she replied, saying she was "just doing her job."
The incident unfolded on Friday, one day after the CNN Presidential Debate between Biden and former President Trump in Atlanta.
Biden received a wave of criticism for his debate performance and has heeded calls since then for him to step aside ahead of the November 2024 election.
The New York Times' and Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editorial boards both called on the president to exit the 2024 race.
"At Thursday’s debate, the president needed to convince the American public that he was equal to the formidable demands of the office he is seeking to hold for another term. Voters, however, cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago," the Times' editorial board wrote.
"The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence," it continued. "Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election."
The Biden campaign confirmed to Fox News that the president has no plans to withdraw from the race and remains committed to a second debate in September.
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Biden acknowledged his poor debate performance Friday at a rally in North Carolina, saying he knows he’s "not a young man."
"I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t talk as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but i know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong," he told supporters. "And I know how to do this job; I know how to get things done. And I know what millions of Americans know: When you get knocked down, you get back up."
