Joe Biden admits he may not be able to salvage campaign

Joe Biden is meeting governors in an attempt to calm nerves after telling an ally his campaign may be unsalvageable and a new poll shows Donald Trump has opened up a six-point lead.

Joe Biden is weighing up his options over his election campaign. Picture: AFP.

Joe Biden has dug in over his re-election campaign, telling staffers: “I’m not leaving,” amid reports he’d told an ally he knows he may not be able to salvage his re-election campaign if he can’t convince the public in the next few days that he is up to the job.

As the president met state governors in an attempt to calm their nerves over his leadership, a new poll showed Donald Trump has opened a six-point lead over the President.

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can – and as simply and straightforward as I can,” Mr Biden told an all-staff meeting. “I am running. I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving.”

Governors leaving the White House meeting described their meeting with the president as “honest,” and told reporters they were focussed on winning the November election.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said: “President Joe Biden is in it to win it, and all of us said we pledged our support to him,” the New York Times reports.

Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota replied; “Yes” when asked if Mr Biden was still fit for office, but acknowledged his debate performance was “bad.”

Earlier, the Biden ally told The New York Times “He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place.”

“He sees the moment. He’s clear-eyed,” the ally, who claimed to have spoken to Mr Biden on Tuesday, told CNN. “The polls are plummeting, the fundraising is drying up, and the interviews are going badly. He’s not oblivious.”

White House advisers immediately came out to deny Mr Biden was considering standing down. White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a brief denial on social media that the claim was “absolutely false.”

And press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the president had told her he hadn’t told associates he was considering whether to withdraw from the race.

“That is absolutely false,” she said, adding: “That’s coming directly from him.”

Biden’s call to campaign staff comes amid an all-hands effort by the president and his senior advisers to reassure politicians, boost party morale and convince sceptics that he is capable of serving another four years in office.

Democratic establishment figures have voiced bafflement over what they see as deflection and anodyne excuses from the president and his aides after his often incoherent debate performance.

And in Congress, politicians see Democratic prospects of taking over the House of Representatives, hanging on to the Senate and returning to the White House slipping away, four months ahead of the election.

It comes as new polling shows Donald Trump widening his lead over the president as 80 per cent of voters consider Mr Biden too old for the job.

A Wall St Journal poll showing Mr Trump’s 48 per cent to 42 per cent lead over Mr Biden is the widest in Journal surveys dating to late 2021 and compares to a 2-point lead in February.

Mr Biden told campaign staff on Wednesday local time he had no intention of standing down.

On Tuesday, Mr Biden blamed exhaustion from international travel for his disastrous debate performance.

Speaking at a fundraiser, Mr Biden said he “wasn’t very smart” for “travelling around the world a couple times … shortly before the debate.” “I didn’t listen to my staff,” he said. “And then I almost fell asleep on stage.”