Democrats stared into the abyss after President Joe Biden fumbled away the first debate and within 72 hours had mostly talked themselves into the idea that it wasn’t worth throwing their convention into chaos over one bad night.

But Biden continued making mistakes that convinced even those who wanted to believe that there was a more systemic problem with the president and his campaign.

It’s a family affair 

First lady Jill Biden may have come on too strong when she tried to rehab her husband’s debate performance. “Joe, you did such a great job!” she told him at a rally afterward, sounding like the teacher she is by profession. “You answered every question, you knew all the facts!”

But the Vogue cover spread featuring the first lady struck some Democrats as ill-timed. While preplanned, with the only reference to the debate inserted into an editor’s note, it reinforced the impression there was insufficient introspection after an embarrassing loss to former President Donald Trump that itself reinforced every concern about the 81-year-old incumbent’s age and acuity. 

Then came reports that Hunter Biden was one of the strongest family advocates of his father remaining in the race. “A good rule of thumb, whatever Hunter Biden advises, do the opposite,” a Democratic lawmaker ranting about the “Praetorian Guard” surrounding the president told the news website NOTUS.

To make matters worse, the younger Biden, who was always a lightning rod and is now a convicted felon, began appearing this week at White House meetings. This did not inspire confidence in the president’s ability to course-correct, indicating flawed judgment and an even more insular approach. 

Shifting explanations

Biden’s camp initially said his hoarse voice and weak debate showing were because of a cold, though that was not said beforehand and the president glad-handed supporters at a Waffle House after the 90-minute event concluded. 

Then Biden allies suggested that perhaps aides overprepared Biden, even though it was later reported the preparation session began at 11 a.m. and left room in the president’s schedule for afternoon naps. It should be noted that Biden himself did not make such claims.

But Biden did tell the crowd at a private fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, that he was still getting over jet lag when he debated Trump. “I wasn’t very smart,” he said. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through I don’t know how many time zones — for real, I think it was 15 time zones. … I didn’t listen to my staff.” 

Except Biden had been back from his last foreign trip for 12 days by the time he took the stage in Atlanta. He spent half of that at Camp David.

Going silent

It took Biden days to communicate with key Democratic stakeholders after the debate, despite widespread dissatisfaction with his performance and anxiety about the general election. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) told CNN Tuesday night he had not heard from Biden. The story was much the same for many Democratic congressional leaders and governors, though the White House staff did some damage control on his behalf.

Biden did not keep to a particularly busy public schedule either. There was a well-received rally in North Carolina before his weekend getaway, a five-minute reaction to the Supreme Court’s Trump immunity decision, and a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House. All involved scripted remarks read from a teleprompter, and he did not take questions from reporters. 

By the end of Wednesday, Biden had spoken to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), top ally Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in addition to holding an evening meeting with Democratic governors. Those governors reaffirmed Biden was staying in the race, as the president and Vice President Kamala Harris did in a campaign call the same day.

Biden also taped interviews with two black radio stations and is scheduled to sit down with ABC News on Friday. Biden’s ABC interview will be with George Stephanopoulos, a longtime network anchor who was previously White House communications director under former President Bill Clinton and a Democratic operative. 

In the intervening days, Biden was panned for being slow to work the phones. The White House cited his busy schedule.

A second dam burst

Not only are Democratic members of Congress starting to call on Biden to end his reelection campaign, but fissures are appearing in his once tight-lipped inner circle. 

A White House all-staff call leaked to the press in real time. Details of Biden’s routine, including claims that he is most engaged between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., have been reported. There is public finger-pointing between people close to the Biden campaign. An “ally” told the New York Times that Biden wasn’t sure he could rescue his flagging bid for a second term.

Clyburn, the man most responsible for reviving Biden’s 2020 campaign with a critically timed endorsement in South Carolina, keeps signaling openness to Biden replacement scenarios in media interviews, though without ever committing to them. 

Neither Biden’s White House nor his campaign have been particularly leak-prone in the past, especially compared to Trump pre-2024.

Mixed signals

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can and as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running,” Biden told campaign staffers in a conference call on Wednesday. “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end, and we’re going to win because when Democrats unite, we always win.”

Biden later repeated this language in a fundraising appeal. Democratic governors left the White House reaffirming that Biden was still in it to win it.

Hours before those governors spoke to the press, however, the Washington Post reported that Biden and senior advisers “accepted Wednesday the grim ultimatum” that they must quickly set things right — even “demonstrate his fitness for office” — or “face a significant effort to force him to step aside.”

It’s possible that Democrats who want Biden to exit are framing his and his team’s acceptance of political reality as waffling about his campaign. The New York Times story about Biden understanding the stakes was originally headlined that he was “weighing whether to continue in the race,” while most of the quotes therein reflected either self-doubt or a realization that time is of the essence. 

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Harris the Democrats’ “future” in Wednesday’s briefing, part of Biden’s 2020 promise to be a “bridge” candidate to a new generation of leaders. “One of the reasons why he picked the vice president, Kamala Harris, is because she is indeed the future of the party,” she told reporters. The first lady, by contrast, declared while introducing her husband at a fundraiser, “Joe isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job.”

More than 90% of the pledged delegates at the Democratic convention are formally committed to Biden. While they could abandon him, the DNC rules don’t anticipate the involuntary removal of the nominee and the delegates would need to move against him en masse. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

In 2016, Trump beat back attempts to topple him at the GOP convention and then even closer to the election stared down party leaders panicking over the Access Hollywood tape in which he made lewd comments about women. Trump won in November, despite trailing Hillary Clinton by 4.5 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average this time eight years ago. Biden’s current deficit is 2.9 points.

The extent of the Democratic panic over Biden’s handling of the debate and its aftermath suggests deep-seated angst about his vitality, electability, and campaign strategy.

(The Center Square) – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 25 million of the company’s shares currently worth about $5 billion. 

In November, the word’s second richest man announced he was leaving Seattle after nearly 30 years of living in the area to move to Miami, Fla. That translates into the Evergreen State losing out on approximately $938 million this year from its former resident.

That’s because Washington has a 7% capital gains tax on the sale or exchange of long-term capital assets, such as stocks, bonds, and business interests. In 2021, the Legislature passed and Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law a capital gains income tax above $250,000 a year aimed at the state’s wealthiest residents. A lawsuit challenged the tax’s constitutionality, but in March 2023, the state Supreme Court held that it was constitutional.

Florida does not have a capital gains tax.

Amazon’s stock is currently at approximately $197.50 per share, meaning Bezos’ intent to sell 25 million shares will collect him $4.9 billion without having to pay Washington taxes.

In the final months of his residency in Washington, Bezos was subjected to owing the state $70 million for every $1 billion of Amazon stock he sold, but the billionaire didn’t make any major transactions like he did just before the capital gains tax took effect. Had he made the latest transaction under the capital gains tax, he would have had to pay $343 million out of the $4.9 billion he will collect from his impending sale of 25 million Amazon shares.

Since Bezos announced his move from the Evergreen State to Florida, he has filed to sell 75 million shares of Amazon stock. Bezos last adopted a trading plan in November to sell up to 50 million shares of Amazon stock totaling $8.5 billion in total. 

Bezos has sold approximately $13.5 billion worth of Amazon shares so far in 2024.

The Center Square previously reported on the capital gains tax generating more than $889 million in revenue in its first year. That is 5.5% less than the $938 million in generated revenue the state missed out on from Bezos alone.

Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, who is also the state Republican Party chair, says the capital gains tax is bad and unpredictable. He pointed to the recent collapse in capital gain tax receipts from nearly $800 million in 2023 to a projected $400 million this year.

“I don’t blame Jeff Bezos or any other person for doing what’s right financially for themselves and their families. I wish he had stayed here, but the bad tax policies of the [Gov. Jay Inslee] administration chased him away,” Walsh emailed The Center Square. “A capital gain tax is always going to drive capital to friendlier places: Florida, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland.”

Washington voters will have the chance to end the capital gains tax this November. Initiative 2109, if passed, would repeal the tax.

President Joe Biden told two black radio hosts that he regrets and wants to move on from his dismal performance at the first 2024 presidential debate.

Numerous Democratic donors, lawmakers, and voters reacted to the debate by expressing doubts about Biden’s continued viability as a candidate and openly discussed replacing him atop the Democratic ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), or a host of other, younger Democratic politicians.

Biden sat for both interviews, recorded Wednesday with WMCS in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and WURD in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The discussions aired Thursday morning on Independence Day.

On WURD, host Andrea Lawful-Sanders pressed the president on whether voters should be concerned about Biden’s age and mental faculties, based on his performance last Thursday, to which he responded, “No.”

“I had a bad debate, but 90 minutes onstage does not erase what I’ve done for three and a half years. I led our economy back from the brink. It’s improving and lowered prescription drug costs,” the president said. “I worked with Republicans to expand veterans healthcare, rallied 50 nations to stand against Putin. I’m proud of the record, and we just got to keep moving.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Biden similarly described his debate debacle as a “bad night” during his interview with WMCS.

“The fact of the matter is that I screwed up. I made a mistake,” he told host Earl Ingram. “That’s 90 minutes onstage. Look at what I’ve done in 3.5 years.”

Biden is scheduled to campaign in both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in the coming days, and he spent the bulk of this past week seeking to put out fires within his own party.

(The Center Square) – The recently passed Michigan budget would guarantee tuition-free community college for all residents, and expands access to tuition-free preschool.

The tuition-free community college program is paid for by $330 million in taxpayer dollars, an increase of $30 million from last year. The new program gets rid of income caps, so any student can receive free tuition at an in-district community college.

The Community College Guarantee builds off an existing Michigan Achievement Scholarship, which provides up to $2,750 a year for a community college, $4,000 a year for a private college or $5,500 a year for a public university. All pell grant recipients will receive an additional $1,000 per year regardless of the college, and all private college students can now receive up to $5,500 in aid.

While the $23.4 billion education spending plan does not fulfill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s goal of universal free preschool, the budget is 3.5% smaller than last year’s $24.3 billion education budget.

The Great Start Readiness Plan allows for free preschool to any family at or below 400% of the federal poverty line, meaning families making up to $124,800 per year could qualify. If additional spots remain open, then families making more than that per year could also qualify.

About 5,000 kids could benefit per year, according to the House Fiscal Agency. If universally free pre-K had passed, an additional 1,800 children would have qualified.

Families interested in enrolling their children in the program need proof of age, income verification, proof of residency, and custody documentation if applicable.

Both the free community college and pre-K programs are a part of the 2025 fiscal year budget passed by the House in the early hours of June 27. The education budget passed along party lines 56-54 in the house and 20-18 in the senate, with the Democratic majority approving the bill.

House Republicans expressed concerns over the spending after pandemic surpluses have been depleted.

“It’s just an extremely unwise and reckless move,” state Senator Thomas Albert, R-Lowell said. “It is in no way necessary to maintain the central programs, and it makes no financial sense.”

The $23.4 billion education budget is just a portion of the $82.5 billion statewide budget approved last week. Whitmer is expected to sign the budget soon.

(The Center Square) – Ahead of Illinois’ Nov. 5 election, state legislators approved a measure Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted into law that contains multiple provisions impacting elections. One provision impacts how parties can spend campaign money. 

The law allows for political parties, like the Democrat Party of Illinois and the Illinois House Republican Organization, to funnel unlimited campaign dollars into candidates’ war chests for both primary and general elections. State Rep. Maurice West, D-Chicago, carried the bill in the House and state Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, opposed the measure. 

“Were they [the political parties] not powerful enough before?” asked Wilhour.

“We’re not making them powerful,” said West.

“Money is power,” said Wilhour.

“There’s no limit in the general election and this [bill] is making it in parity with the primary election as well,” said West. 

Prior to House Bill 4488, campaign contribution caps were only applied to primary races. Now both primaries and general election candidates can receive unlimited funds from their political parties.

State Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, questioned West on the House floor. 

“With the unlimited campaign contributions in a primary, does that apply to every candidate, like those running for the Illinois Supreme Court?” asked Caulkins. 

“Yes sir,” said West. “They can receive unlimited campaign contributions from the party only.” 

The law takes effect immediately.

Also this legislative session, West supported a separate election bill, Senate Bill 2412, that changed the rules for slating candidates to fill vacancies. That law is currently under the microscope of the Illinois Supreme Court. Candidates, like Leslie Collazo, filed a lawsuit challenging Illinois’ hastily changed election law. 

HB 4488 originally was going to establish a Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week but later was gutted and replaced with an elections omnibus. SB 2412 was originally a bill about child welfare but was gutted and replaced to be the slating change. 

Reform for Illinois said they’re disappointed that the omnibus bill didn’t address urgent needs like requiring disclosure of deepfake election communications. Executive Director Alisa Kaplan said this omission means Illinois voters will lack essential tools to separate fact from fiction.

“So there were concerns from both sides of the aisle and there were obvious concerns for democracy and our election but somehow it didn’t make it in,” said Kaplan. “They were supposed to address deceptive election communications that were generated by artificial intelligence, so deepfakes. It wouldn’t have banned the use of deceptive communication, it would have just required a disclosure on them. The idea was that voters should know what they’re looking at.”

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office said it was investigating reports of an alleged robocall that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice to tell voters to not show up to the polls for the primary election.

While deepfakes were not addressed, Illinois’ omnibus bill did address how candidates fund their campaigns.

State Rep. Kevin Schmidt, R-Cahokia Heights, voted against the measure in the House. 

“Unlimited funds in the primary, it really only helps the establishment and it doesn’t give a fair shake to newcomers,” said Schmidt.

Reform for Illinois said removing the caps on party contributions is a significant move that reflects party leaders’ intent to gain more control over primary elections, which are often the only meaningful contests in a state with many uncontested districts statewide.

(The Center Square) – Ten counties, mostly in the eastern part of the state, are under severe drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor of North Carolina.

Sixty-nine more are considered in moderate drought, according to the weekly report from Tuesday. A week earlier, 57 counties were in moderate drought and there were none reaching the severe level.

Pitt and surrounding counties are the hub of the worst conditions. At the Tar River location in Greenville the National Weather Service measured 0.33 inches in the last seven days as of Wednesday afternoon, the website of the U.S. Geological Survey says. That was from an overnight rain Sunday into Monday that broke the humidity a bit, but not the dry spell.

In addition to Pitt, all or parts of Beaufort, Bertie, Columbus, Craven, Greene, Martin, Pamlico, Stokes and Wayne counties are in severe drought.

The moderate drought extends from the foothills to the Atlantic Ocean.

Abnormally dry conditions are in 21 counties, many in the southern foothills and the mountains. Forty-two counties a week earlier were considered abnormally dry.

Agriculture and agribusiness have an economic impact of $111.1 billion in North Carolina, the state Agriculture Department says.

In the most recent crop progress and condition report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s North Carolina Field Office, 68% of corn and 30% of soybeans are poor or very poor condition. Another 15% and 47%, respectively, are fair.

Sweet potatoes’ progress is at 79%, about 9% behind a year ago and just 1% below the five-year average. North Carolina is No. 1 nationally each in all tobacco, flue-cured tobacco, and sweet potatoes; and No. 5 in cotton.

Tobacco is statistically behind in progress, though not by much. The plant does enjoy warmth, though extreme heat can impact the yield.

(The Center Square) – The City of Spokane is returning to the idea of a regional homeless authority after its city council killed the initiative last summer over several concerns and potentially unrealistic goals. 

Spokane County Commissioner Amber Waldref refreshed the council’s memory during a meeting last Thursday before discussing how to potentially revive the idea again. 

“We have new leadership at the city; we have new council members,” Waldref said. “We needed to kind of take a step back and let folks catch up on the conversation.”

Despite the county’s first year-over-year decrease in overall homelessness in January, more and more people are turning to life on the streets. While many municipalities across the region tout their own five-year plans, Waldref said the lack of a regional approach limits the overall impact.

Waldref said those communities are becoming overwhelmed by the homeless population’s growing needs, which housing and comprehensive support services can’t keep up with. Now, the communities are rallying together to give the idea some momentum again.

She said the relevant committees and task forces across the county are informally coordinating to identify overlaps between their plans and areas for collaboration. 

“They would like with the five-year plan updates to coordinate and make sure that if the city’s going to prioritize X investments, that maybe the county would then prioritize Y,” Waldref said. “There seems to be an opportunity to take that from informal to more formal.”

Prior plans for a regional approach included propping up a public development authority, or PDA, consisting of elected officials and representatives across Spokane County.

“I know, putting on my nonprofit hat, having to apply to multiple jurisdictions for dollars can be challenging,” Waldref said. “There’s a lot of competition for the dollars, and were potentially making our nonprofits work harder to get out those services for those who need them.”

A 14-member board would have led the effort while coordinating with other organizations, such as the Regional Continuum of Care, local coalitions and others. However, according to The Spokesman-Review, those same organizations led to the council pitting the idea. 

While a PDA makes it easy for individual municipalities to transfer funds to the authority, there were concerns about too many and too few elected officials on the board. Waldref also cited concerns over some of the recommendations received from volunteer consultants. 

Those included increasing the housing supply to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 40%, establishing an integrated resource center and expanding diversion and detention efforts, among other recommendations, all in two years. 

King County’s Regional Homeless Authority recently received pushback from Seattle over its spending of tax dollars despite a lack of progress on mitigating the crisis. Seattle ultimately decided pull $11.7 million in annual funding; however, it still allocated $109.3 million toward KCRHA in 2024.

“Should the authority have oversight over all affordable housing, homeless and mental health funding streams,” Waldref said. “That was the recommendation, to look at all the funding streams between the city and the county, but that’s a lot to bite off.”

Waldref said a 40% reduction in unsheltered homeless over two years is unrealistic considering the county’s growing trend. While 2024 represented the first year-over-year decrease since 2016, it also represents a 106% increase in overall homelessness since 2016.

Not long after receiving the recommendations, the group charged with leading the discussion decided to abandon the recommended guiding principles and instead focus on structure; they wanted to emphasize funding streams, board make-up and the length of the commitment. 

“There’s a lot of different timelines for a lot of these different funds,” Waldref said. “The state’s on a July 1 to June 30 calendar, the federal government’s on a fall-to-fall calendar, we’re all on a January to December calendar, so it would take several years to get all of these RFP processes put together into some sort of calendar.”

She said there were concerns that the communities would not see any benefits because the timeline had been stretched out so far, but now, Waldref wants to get the conversation rolling again. The group met last month and agreed to continue moving forward. 

Waldref and the council discussed the possibility of looping in private funds to further support a regional homeless authority, similar to how Houston’s model works. Councilmember Jonathan Bingle said that despite Spokane’s smaller size, there are still plenty of companies willing to help. 

“This next meeting is really critical; we need to decide if we want to work on some short-term strategies or if we want to keep working toward a regional organization,” Waldref said, “and then who’s going to roll up the sleeves and be working on that.”

The conversation around a regional homeless authority will likely continue over the next year with an eye toward considering propping it up to benefit each community.

The Associated Press outdid itself on Wednesday in a new report examining President Joe Biden’s mental acuity that concluded he is “sharp” and focused on the job but also someone “forgetful” and prone to confusion.

The seemingly contradictory findings were singled out by conservatives who called out the outlet for carrying Biden’s water less than a week after he delivered a disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump. Since then, a near-endless flurry of media reports have quoted prominent Democrats, liberal donors, and members of the media who have all seemed to suddenly reach the same conclusion: Biden is not up for the job and needs to drop out.

VOTE NOW: Do you blame BIDEN or TRUMP for the crashing economy?

The chorus of concern makes the AP’s report all the most mystifying. Among their findings:

He is often sharp and focused. But he also has moments, particularly later in the evening, when his thoughts seem jumbled and he trails off mid-sentence or seems confused. Sometimes he doesn’t grasp the finer points of policy details. He occasionally forgets people’s names, stares blankly and moves slowly around the room.

Biden’s occasional struggles with focus may not be unusual for someone his age. But at 81 years old and seeking another four years in the White House, the moments when he’s off his game have taken on a fresh resonance following his disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump. The president appeared pale, gave nonsensical answers, stared blankly and lost his train of thought.

The story was based off more than two dozen interviews conducted with allies who frequently spend private moments with the 81-year-old incumbent and who were granted the chance to speak anonymously and candidly about their observations. One source described the growth of slowness in the president’s gait and demeanor over just the past 12 months, casting the issue as a slow-moving problem that presented a “missed opportunity” for aides to be realistic about his stamina. Rather than confront the problem head-on, the White House employed a strategy to keep Biden from falling in public, sending him up a smaller set of stairs to Air Force One and insisting he wear dressy black sneakers with a high-grip sole to keep his feet underneath him.

Aside from sparse moments of liveliness pointed to by supporters who spoke with the AP, the majority of the story focused on Biden’s private and public struggles and his team’s efforts to limit his unscripted interactions with the media. That meat of the story prompted a brutal round of mockery online.

“Same vibe,” one user on X replied to the outlet, posting a still photo of a reporter covering an anti-police riot with cars on fire while the chryon declared a “mostly peaceful” protest.

Same vibes pic.twitter.com/NNLLcKemi1

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) July 4, 2024

“AP in 2024: accurate and fair but sometimes partisan and shoddy,” another quipped. “My kitchen knives are sharp and dull,” joked another.

AP in 2024: accurate and fair but sometimes partisan and shoddy.

— Charles West (@CharlemagneWest) July 4, 2024

My kitchen knives are sharp and dull.

— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 4, 2024

Confused but mostly focused.

— Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) July 4, 2024

Another asked a legitimate question. “Do you guys read these headlines out loud before you post them?”

Do you guys read these headlines out loud before you post them?

— SmirKing Revenge (@InvisibleHand78) July 4, 2024

(BREAKING: Your Bank Account Is About To Be Cut In HALF)

A longtime major donor of President Joe Biden and Democratic candidates around the country has ripped the president’s team for “deceiving” his supporters about his faltering mental acuity, adding in a recent interview that the “dam has broken” among some of his most reliable supporters who now fear he is all but certain to lose in November.

Whitney Tilson, a Wall Street investor and co-founder of Netflix, demanded in a recent interview that the elderly incumbent “step down immediately” and allow the party to quickly nominate a younger challenger with an ostensibly better chance of defeating Trump.

VOTE NOW: Are You In Favor Of Term Limits For All Members Of Congress?

“I feel like I have been deceived,” Tilson told the New York Post on Tuesday. “Biden and the people around him have been deceiving the American people.

“The dam has broken. We all know and we can all see that we were lied to. I am deliberately calling it a Big Lie because this is as big a lie as Trump’s Big Lie,” he added.

Tilson, 57, followed up on that interview with an appearance on CNN’s “OutFront with Erin Burnett” where he was asked whether his incendiary comments were helping or hurting the anti-Trump cause.

“I think that the dam has broken and that more and more people will come out publicly. I can tell you with certainty that as recently as last Friday and Saturday after the debate, there were quite a few people who felt like it was just an off night. As of today, I can‘t find anybody — and I am a hard, hardcore Democrat and Biden supporter,” Tilson said, the Daily Caller reported.

“I love Joe Biden. I respect the fact that he‘s an optimist, that he‘s a fighter, and that has served him well in the 52 years since he was first elected to the Senate. But it‘s different today, I‘m afraid. The ship has sailed and there is basically no almost no support remaining for him as a candidate. Not against him personally, but because nobody thinks he can be Trump and I think, unfortunately, that is correct.”

WATCH:

Several notable post-debate polls by NYT/Siena, WSJ and Daily Mail/JL Partners all showed that President Trump extended his modest lead over Biden, adding to concern that the race is slipping away from him. Former President Barack Obama reached out to his old vice president, sharing his thoughts and offering himself as a sounding board while Biden seriously contemplates whether to drop out of the race. On Friday the 81-year-old Democrat will sit for his first post-debate, one-on-one interview with George Stephanopoulos, which the White House billed as an “extended” appearance but now seems set to limit to just 15 minutes.

(BREAKING: This Is The Handshake That Will Collapse The Western Economy)

Behind the scenes, President Joe Biden’s team is negotiating with ABC to limit his first post-debate interview to as little as 15 minutes.

Persons familiar with the plan, speaking with the Daily Beast, revealed that George Stephanopoulos — a mainstream media host and former Democratic operative — won’t have much time to conduct what was expected to be a wide-ranging interview with the president. The sit-down was announced by the White House earlier this week as part of a flurry of media moves intended to reassure panicked supporters that the 81-year-old is still in the fight against former President Donald Trump.

VOTE NOW: Do you blame BIDEN or TRUMP for the crashing economy?

The source also revealed deep concern within ABC’s higher-ups that the White House is prepared to pull the rug out from under Stephanopoulos after promising an “extended” interview with Biden. A spokesperson for the president quickly shot down that notion, telling the outlet, “False. The interview will be longer.” Still, senior network executives met on Wednesday to strategize which questions would receive priority in the event that Biden arrives on the set with plans to not stay for long.

At the same time, ABC is well aware that the president can be long-winded at times, making non-sequiturs or telling stories that stretch out his answers. Some are simply hoping that the president will disregard his aides’ request to keep things short and told donors in a private retreat last week that he was “clear eyed” about his need to reassure the public that he has the stamina for another four years.

The AP previously noted that President Biden has appeared at fewer news conferences at this point in his presidency than any predecessor going back to Ronald Reagan. His number of general interviews fares even worse; Biden has answers questions 128 times compared to 369 by Trump and 497 by Obama.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre agreed with the premise that Friday’s interview would be Biden’s best attempt to “turn the page” on a disastrous debate performance that has broken the levee previously limiting calls for him to drop out of the presidential race. Suggestions for a new nominee are now coming from sitting members of Congress, some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, and even former President Barack Obama as anxiety mounts that Biden will be walking into a buzzsaw in November.

A New York Times report on Wednesday indicated President Biden is, for the first time, giving serious consideration to dropping out of the race. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said to The Hill on Wednesday, “That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so.”

(BREAKING: Glenn Beck reveals new Biden initiative that will bankrupt America)