Biden Adviser Confronted on MSNBC About President Dropping Out

Following the first presidential debate of 2024, Anita Dunn, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, was confronted on MSNBC on Saturday about whether she had conversations about Biden dropping out of the presidential race after his lackluster performance.

Biden and former President Donald Trump became their respective party's presumptive 2024 presidential candidates earlier this year following a string of primary victories, likely setting up a rematch of the fiercely contested 2020 election. On Thursday, Trump and Biden participated in the first presidential debate of this year's election cycle, which was hosted by CNN in Georgia.

As Biden and Trump sparred over key issues during the debate, both faced high stakes, with polls suggesting many voters are unhappy with their choices ahead of the election. In addition, Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, have faced concerns about their age. However, Biden failed to quell those concerns during the debate after he appeared to lose his train of thought at times and stumble in his responses. The president's debate performance has led some members of the Democratic Party to consider replacing him as its nominee, however, there is no indication of who would be proposed as a candidate and Biden's campaign has not signaled stepping down.

In a Saturday appearance on MSNBC's The Weekend, co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend asked Dunn about whether she had conversations following the debate about whether Biden should drop out of the race.

"We would be remiss if we did not ask, because you all did not have any kind of conversations about should Joe Biden drop out of this race?" Sanders-Townsend asked.

Dunn responded: "No. The conversation we had is, okay, what do we do next? [Former President] Barack Obama said 'bad debates happen.' We had a bad debate. What do we do next? The president, above all, is focused on what do we do next? What do I need to go do?" Dunn said.

However, Sanders-Townsend asked about the ongoing criticism Biden has received since the debate.

"What is your response to those who say you all, the Biden campaign people, say they know what they are doing and then Joe Biden went on the biggest stage that he had prior [to the Democratic National] Convention and fumbled the ball? They are being very critical."

Dunn defended against the ongoing criticism from others concerning Biden's performance at Thursday's debate and pointed toward his accomplishments.

"As the president said yesterday, maybe he isn't as great a debater as he used to be. I would just tend to say it wasn't his greatest debate. But it's 90 minutes in a campaign and in an administration where he has achieved enormous things. Maybe it wasn't a great debate, but he has been a great president. That is the case he is going to take to the American people and the campaign will take and we will contrast it with where Donald Trump wants to lead this country," Biden's senior adviser added.

When asked by the network's co-host Alicia Menendez about her response to "members of the House of Representatives, Democrats who are on the phone with reporters saying that the president needs to step down?"

Dunn countered that Biden is the only one to beat Trump in a presidential election, reaffirming that the president will do it again by working together.

"We're basically saying, the president is the only person out there who's ever beaten Donald Trump, and he will do it again. And we're all going to work together on this," Dunn said.

Newsweek has reached out to Biden's campaign via email for comment.

Meanwhile, a CNN poll following the debate found that 67 percent of debate watchers said Trump won the debate, compared to 33 percent that sided with Biden. The poll found that ahead of the debate, 55 percent of respondents believed Trump would better perform in the debate, compared to 45 percent that sided with Biden.

Biden and Trump are expected to face off in a second debate on September 10, which will be hosted by ABC News.

According to FiveThirtyEight's national aggregator poll, Trump is leading Biden by 1 point as of Saturday afternoon, with 41.5 percent to 40.5 percent.