Biden makes stunning admission about his endangered reelection campaign to top ally: Follow along for U.S. politics live updates

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

President Joe Biden told a close ally that he doesn't think he can salvage his campaign after his train wreck debate with Donald Trump last week.

It is the first real sign that the president is considering dropping out of the race amid calls for a new candidate.

The deciding factor, a key ally told The New York Times, could be Biden's campaign stops in in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this weekend. They said of the president's thinking:

Emily Goodin, senior U.S. political reporter

The White House is struggling to calm the storm of outrage from Joe Biden's debate performance as Democratic lawmakers call for the president to exit the race and the White House staff are 'freaking the f*** out.'

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients is scheduled to hold an all-hands-on-deck staff call at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to pump up disillusioned staff and reassure them that Biden will remain the nominee.

The president has been on the phone to lawmakers trying to shore up his support on Capitol Hill amid worries Republicans will take control of the House and Senate - along with the White House - in the upcoming elections, giving them unchecked power to run the country.

Biden also will meet with governors on Wednesday evening as he and his team scramble to stem even more defections.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Now a group of business leaders are calling for Joe Biden to step down for a replacement Democratic nominee.

Leadership Now Project is the latest entity expressing it wants to see a different candidate on the ticket in 2024 other than the incumbent president after his disastrous debate performance.

The group wrote in a statement responding to the debate:

President Joe Biden's campaign sent out an all-staff memo showing internal polls from battleground states that note Biden only dropped half a point in the fallout from his debate performance.

The memo acknowledges fears that Biden will see a substantial drop in the polls after his fumbling in the debate.

'We are going to see a few polls come out today and we want you all to hear from us on what we know internally and what we expect to come externally,' the memo, obtained by Politico, reads.

'Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate — it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race.'

The Five Thirty Eight polling average has Donald Trump leading Biden nationally by two points. The former president also leads in many of the swing states that will decide the election.

Biden has thus far rejected the pressure, insisting he could still beat Trump come November, but should the 81-year-old change course and bow out of the race, there are a series of hurdles other Democratic candidates could face.

One of the biggest challenges: how to raise a massive sum of cash to take on Trump in a short amount of time. Biden's massive campaign war chest would not necessarily flow to a replacement for the president at the top of the ticket.

And that is a considerable amount of money they could be leaving on the table.

Emily Goodin, senior U.S. political reporter

President Joe Biden on Wednesday will award the Medal of Honor to two Union soldiers who stole a train deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War in what is known as Great Locomotive Chase.

U.S. Army Pvts. Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson were part of a group of soldiers who hijacked a train named The General, drive it north for 87 miles, destroying railroad tracks and telegraph lines along the way.

They were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Six of the participants became the Army´s first recipients of the then-newly created Medal of Honor. Over the next two decades, another 13 members were recognized for their role in mission but Shadrach and Wilson were not honored until now.

Their posthumous recognition comes as the legacy of the Civil War still shapes American politics in a contentious election year where race, constitutional rights and presidential power are a major issue.

The ceremony will take place in the East Room of the White House Wednesday afternoon.

Hunter Biden has joined White House meetings this week after spending the weekend at Camp David with his dad on the heels of President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance.

NBC News reported Tuesday on Hunter's presence on calls and in meetings on the White House campus as the 81-year-old president's political future hangs in the balance.

Hunter was convicted last month on felony gun charges and is still under indictment for tax crimes though 'popped into' a couple of meetings, one source said.

There's growing uproar within the White House over President Joe Biden's shockingly feeble debate.

It's now becoming a full-blown party revolt as two sitting Democrats are bucking Biden and saying they want another candidate on the top of the ticket, with a third saying he can't win.

The president will try and reassure Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday as an all-staff White House meeting is set to occur at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Aides told Axios: 'Everyone is freaking the f*** out.'

A top pollster says there's only one Democrat who can beat Trump but not only have they never held office, they haven't even campaigned for Joe Biden yet this election season.

While other former Democrats and liberal pundits have speculated on Biden's ability to hold the presidency through 2028, should he win, two elected members of the party's Congressional delegation have called on him to drop out Tuesday.

Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, 41, is now saying that he expects Trump to win after Biden's terrible debate performance while Lloyd Doggett of Texas, 77, he's actually 'OK' if Donald Trump wins in November.

Now, pollster Ipsos tested several elected an unelected Democrats head-to-head with Biden and only one would beat him, according to their survey.

A new CBS poll released Wednesday shows ex-President Donald Trump is up three points over President Biden across all battleground states nationwide, 48% to 51%.

He also has a two-point lead over the president in a national head-to-head matchup.

In another warning siren for Biden, the poll also showed a massive enthusiasm gap between the two candidates.

Democrats are not as likely to 'definitely' vote in November compared to Republicans.

At least 25 Democrat members of Congress are set to call on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race in the coming days, while a pair of Senators have distanced themselves from the ailing president.

The Democratic revolt in the House was expected to take place if Biden 'seems shaky in coming days' as one Democrat aide warned: 'the dam is broken.'

In the Senate, it was revealed that centrist Joe Manchin needed to be pulled back from the brink as he prepared to become the first Biden ally to call for him to quit on one of the Sunday news shows.

'Nobody wants to be the first one to knife Julius Caesar,' a party insider said about Manchin's predicament.