CBS reporter Robert Costa pushed back on CBS White House correspondent Ed O'Keefe after he suggested that Democrats were calling on President Joe Biden to drop out of the race following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
During a discussion on Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan asked O'Keefe if Biden was changing his campaign plans following the shooting.
O'Keefe, who has frequently criticized the president, admitted he didn't know but insisted Democrats were calling on Biden to drop out after a poor debate performance.
"As we've reported, just an hour before this incident, before the president was going to his Saturday night mass in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware," O'Keefe said, "just before the former president was shot in Pennsylvania, he was in the midst of what's been described to us as a defensive, angry call with dozens of House Democratic lawmakers raising concerns about his political prospects."
"He was defensive, we're told in that conversation," O'Keefe asserted. "And while the conversation about his future may be suspended for now, in the words of one lawmaker, it may resume again if he, quote, has another episode."
Costa interrupted O'Keefe before Brennan could cut to a commercial break.
"I've been speaking with some top Democrats," Costa explained. "They believe that those Democrats who have the concerns about President Biden are now standing down politically, will back President Biden because of this fragile political moment."
