The White House on June 29 denied rumors that President Joe Biden returned to Camp David to consult his family members about the future of his re-election campaign.
The statement came after NBC News reported that the president had visited Camp David to meet with family members and decide whether to continue or end his campaign early due to growing concerns over his debate performance, citing five anonymous sources.
President Biden’s travel to Camp David was scheduled before the June 27 debate.
“The premise of the story is not accurate,” a Biden official told reporters on Saturday evening, referring to the NBC News report.
Officials said the Biden family would be taking a family photo at Camp David.
“Then they never came to us for comment about it at all. I hope standards are not in decline,” Mr. Bates said.
Both the Biden and Trump campaigns have ramped up their efforts to raise funds after the debate, reaching out to voters with messages and emails.
President Biden’s campaign announced that it has raised $33 million since the debate, with nearly 80 percent of that coming from grassroots supporters.
Following the debate, President Biden also traveled to New York and New Jersey to raise funds in wealthy ZIP codes such as the Hamptons.
“I understand the concern about the debate. I get it. I didn’t have a great night,” President Biden told supporters on June 29 at a campaign reception in East Hampton.
“Voters had a different reaction than the pundits,” he said, noting that a number of polls indicated a minimal change in voters’ decisions.
During his speech, President Biden also mentioned the recent op-ed by The New York Times editorial board, which called on the Democratic incumbent to withdraw from the 2024 race.
Neither the Biden campaign, nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.
However, Biden’s campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, chastised the media in a June 29 memo.
“It’s a familiar story: Following Thursday night’s debate, the beltway class is counting Joe Biden out. The data in the battleground states, though, tells a different story,” she wrote.
“If we do see changes in polling in the coming weeks, it will not be the first time that overblown media narratives have driven temporary dips in the polls,” she noted, pointing to the 2012 race when President Barack Obama’s debate performance led to a temporary loss of support.
On June 27, President Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off for 90 minutes in their first 2024 presidential debate at CNN’s studio in Atlanta.
According to the network’s flash poll, a majority of debate watchers, 67 percent, believed that former President Trump outperformed President Biden, compared to 33 percent who believed the opposite.
Meanwhile, in the same poll, 81 percent of registered voters who watched the debate said it did not affect their decision about who they would vote for, while 14 percent said it made them reconsider but did not change their view. Five percent said it impacted their opinions about who to vote for in November.
