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President Joe Biden's campaign chair on Friday acknowledged that the president has seen "slippage" in support in recent weeks but reaffirmed that he still had "multiple pathways" to win reelection.
During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Jen O'Malley Dillon made the case for the Biden-Harris ticket despite growing calls from lawmakers and major donors for the president to step aside as the Democratic nominee.
"I'm not here to say that this hasn't been a tough several weeks for the campaign," O'Malley Dillon said. "We've definitely seen some slippage in support. But it has been a small movement."
"We have multiple pathways to victory," she emphasized.
After Biden's poor debate performance in late June, the campaign has had to fight back against questions about the president's acuity, especially as many voters have identified his age as a concern.
"The American people know that the president is older. They see that. They knew that before the debate," O'Malley Dillon said.
"We have a lot of work to do to make sure that we are reassuring the American people that yes, he's old, but he can do the job, and he can win," she continued. "And I think that that's fundamentally what we're built for as a campaign."
In the weeks following the debate, Biden has worked to convince Democratic leaders that he has a strong plan in place for defeating former President Donald Trump in the fall. But after the attempted assassination of Trump last Saturday and this week's selection of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as Trump's running mate, the narrative of the 2024 race has been upended.
Biden is now trailing in polling in most of the battleground states, a dilemma on the minds of Democratic leaders in Washington.
The president, who is self-isolating in Delaware after contracting COVID-19, is aiming to resume his campaign in the coming days.
