- As President Joe Biden faces calls to step down, his chief of staff has tried to rally the team.
- In a conference call with all staff on Wednesday, he urged staff members to tune out the noise and focus on their work.
- Meanwhile, Biden is working to shore up support for his campaign, saying he plans to run anyway.
According to multiple reports, White House staff have been asked to hunker down and fight to save President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign.
Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, held a full-staff conference call Wednesday, telling his aides they should take pride in their work and ignore the noise surrounding their big boss as he ramps up his reelection bid, according to The Hill.
As Biden struggles this week to reassure donors and major supporters after a disastrous debate, Zients has asked his staff to focus and “execute, execute, execute,” the New York Times wrote.
The Hill reported that Zients encouraged staff members to remain disciplined and support each other.
The Associated Press also reported on the meeting, writing that it was an effort to boost morale at the White House.
It comes as Biden told his team and Democratic National Committee staff on Wednesday that he would continue to run, dismissing reports that he was privately considering whether his campaign might be unsalvageable.
“I’m not leaving. I’m in this race until the end, and we’re going to win,” Biden said.
The president has been grappling with a potential rout among panicked donors and his core supporters since the debate, during which he repeatedly mumbled, didn’t finish sentences and at times appeared distracted or lost.
At least two Democratic lawmakers have since called on Biden to drop out of re-election, while two others have said the president is likely to lose to his rival, former President Donald Trump.
It has been widely reported that Biden’s office has been fielding a flurry of calls and meetings with political leaders, including House Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
The White House has so far managed to rally the support of several Democratic governors, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walsh and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Experts and observers still have doubts.
“When faced with imminent failure, many studies show that, instead of rethinking our plans, we tend to redouble our efforts to make decisions,” Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an op-ed for the Times. “It’s better to be a fighter than a quitter.”
The Biden campaign and White House press teams did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment sent outside of regular business hours.
