US President Joe Biden met with his family on Sunday where he was believed to include talk about his political future after his calamitous presidential debate with Donald Trump. Though the family meeting was already scheduled to take place ahead of the presidential debate, it came at a time when he was facing mounting pressure to step down after the vast fallout of the debate.
However, it would ultimately be the President and First Lady Jill Biden who will make any pivotal decisions about his candidacy for a second term of office, reported NBC News, although the couple's children and grandchildren were present at the weekend retreat at Camp David.
“Any discussion about the campaign is expected to be informal or an afterthought,” a source was quoted as saying in the report in a bid to dampen speculation over the purpose of the meeting.
Similarly, an administration official also sought to refute reports that Biden's family meeting was set to discuss him potentially standing down. “The premise of the [NBC] story is not accurate,” the official told a media huddle at New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force Base, reported the Guardian.
The meeting was "public in our guidance before the debate. It’s been on the schedule for weeks. There is nothing more to it,” said the official.
The official, however, did not deny that the subject would come up. Meanwhile, as per the NBC report, Biden's mood in private was "humiliated" and "devoid of confidence" after the debate, and he was leaning heavily on his family for support.
Addressing a rally in North Carolina on Friday, Biden said: "I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to," addressing the widespread criticism of his Thursday performance.