The Call Is Coming From Inside the White House

It’s a really big day in Washington.

President Biden is set to give a solo news conference at 6:30 p.m. — a high-stakes, unscripted appearance at a perilous moment.

Democratic voters and some lawmakers have been in a panic since his poor debate performance two weeks ago. And we found out today that cracks are even forming inside Biden’s own team, which has long been defined by its loyalty to the president.

A few hours ago, my colleagues Michael Schmidt, Katie Rogers and Peter Baker reported that some longtime advisers to Biden, serving in both the White House and his campaign, have become convinced that he needs to step aside from his campaign and have been discussing how they can persuade him to do so.

Biden’s innermost circle remains adamant that he should stay in the race, they reported, but the article indicates that some of the people working overtime to keep Biden in the race are no longer fully united behind the idea of his continuing his candidacy — and that’s a really big deal. The White House denied the account.

What’s more, the Biden campaign is surveying voters about Vice President Kamala Harris’s strength against Trump, another set of my colleagues reported today. It could be a sign that Biden’s campaign is trying to bolster his case for leading the ticket — or that his team is gathering information that could demonstrate to the president that his path forward is slim.

All of this makes tonight’s news conference all the more crucial for a president who is trying to calm Democrats’ fears and reassert control over his party. So I called my colleague Michael Shear, a White House reporter, to discuss the president’s gambit to talk to the public as the doubts about his candidacy spread among his own staff. Our