(Headline USA) The White House blasted the New York Times this week after the outlet published a report claiming President Joe Biden is considering dropping out of the 2024 race.
“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,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
In its report, the Times quoted a key Biden ally who said the president “knows he may not be able to salvage his candidacy if he cannot convince the public in the coming days that he is up for the job.”
To that end, Biden sees his upcoming interview with ABC News and campaign stops in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as “essential” to convincing voters and members of his own party that he can stay in the race, the report added.
But the Biden campaign also refuted the report, with deputy principal campaign manager Quentin Fulks telling CNN on Wednesday, “The president is in this race to win it. He is the Democratic nominee.”
When asked if Biden has had zero conversations with allies about potentially dropping out, Fulks responded, “That is correct.”
The Times report is just the latest hit-piece on the Biden campaign from the publication in what has become an escalating feud between the outlet and the president.
Last week, the Times published an editorial calling on Biden to drop out, and much of its coverage since then clearly has been intended to add to that pressure.
“The greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election,” said the editorial.
“As it stands, the president is engaged in a reckless gamble,” it continued. “There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency.”
While the notoriously left-skewed “Grey Lady” has often carried water for Biden—particularly in comparison with its unrelenting attacks on his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, the Times has faced tensions over criticisms from the Biden administration that it had not been fawning enough in its coverage, sometimes resulting in pushback from the newspaper.
In May, Times Executive Editor Joe Hahn warned that the White House could expect no safe harbor, despite its hectoring.
Admitting that the newsroom had gone too far in its efforts to prevent Trump from being reelected in 2020, Hahn said it would strive for a more impartial tone this time around, particularly with Trump assuming the frontrunner spot.
“It is not the job of the news media to prevent that from happening … [I]t’s the job of Biden and the people around Biden to prevent that from happening,” Hahn said.
