Amid reports that President Joe Biden is weighing whether to stay in the race, the White House appeared to double down Wednesday.
In a call with all staffers, Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, acknowledged to Biden's circle he "didn't have a great night," but emphasized it was just one night — "and what we all know is he is a great president." That's according to Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, who shared details of the call on X.
The Washington Post reported that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris personally joined the call.
Zients shared three points with colleagues, the first: "Put your head down. execution. execution. execution."
And at the same time, "hold your head high," he said, urging staffers to remember Biden's accomplishments.
Zients stressed that "we need to stay together as a team and have each other's back," according to Axios, particularly now as Biden faces "a period of intense noise out there."
"People are looking for chatter," he said. "Tune. It. Out."
Read also: ProPublica releases unedited interview with Joe Biden in wake of debate
Questions have swirled for the 81-year-old Biden following a disastrous performance at last week's debate in Atlanta, in which he sounded raspy and evidently nearly fell asleep.
A soft-spoken President Joe Biden reportedly admitted Tuesday that he put on a sleepy performance at the debate but told donors a tough travel schedule was to blame.
"I decided to travel around the world a couple of times ... shortly before the debate ... I didn't listen to my staff ... and then I almost fell asleep on stage," he said.
Former President Barack Obama has publicly backed his ex-vice president following what Obama acknowledged was a "bad debate" night. Behind closed doors, however, Obama has reportedly expressed concerns that Biden may have hurt his chances of winning re-election.
Obama told allies behind closed doors who reached out to him that Biden’s path to re-election became a tougher challenge. The two reportedly talked over the phone following the disastrous night that left many openly questioning Biden's cognitive health and some calling for him to drop out of the race.
