President Joe Biden's campaign has reportedly commissioned a survey to determine whether Vice President Kamala Harris could win against Donald Trump if she becomes the Democratic nominee, according to a new report.
Three sources told The New York Times that the campaign had commissioned the head-to-head poll between Harris and Trump after Biden faced pressure to drop out due to a poor debate performance.
The sources did not say what the campaign intended to do with the results.
The Times concluded that the survey "indicates that his campaign may be preparing to wade into a debate that has consumed the Democratic Party behind closed doors: whether Mr. Biden should step aside for his vice president."
In a memo on Thursday, Biden campaign manager Jennifer O'Malley Dillon explained the "path ahead."
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"In addition to what we believe is a clear pathway ahead for us, there is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump," the memo asserted. "Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden."
"The movement we have seen, while real, is not a sea-change in the state of the race," Dillon added.