Democracy Dies in Darkness

Biden’s path to victory narrows in wake of damaging debate performance

Trump, by contrast, faces a potentially expanded electoral map, giving him multiple possible routes to victory and more wiggle room.

By Ashley Parker

Michael Scherer

and

Tyler Pager

July 13, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

President Biden walks onstage during NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington on Thursday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

12 min

President Biden told reporters Thursday that unless his team comes to him with an unequivocal and blunt message — “There’s no way you can win” — he has no plans to reconsider his decision to stay in the presidential race.

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But following his halting and politically damaging debate performance just over two weeks ago, there are growing Democratic fears that Biden’s path to victory in November has become significantly narrower, giving him almost no margin for error.

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By Ashley Parker

Ashley Parker is Senior National Political Correspondent for The Washington Post. She has been part of three Post teams that won Pulitzer Prizes — two for National Reporting (in 2018 and 2024) and one for Public Service (in 2022). She joined The Post in 2017, after 11 years at the New York Times. She is also an on-air contributor to NBC News/MSNBC.Twitter

By Michael Scherer

Michael Scherer is a national political reporter at The Washington Post. He was previously the Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, where he also served as the White House correspondent. Before joining Time, he was the Washington correspondent for Salon.com.Twitter

By Tyler Pager

Tyler Pager is a White House reporter at The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2021 after covering the White House at Politico and the 2020 presidential campaign at Bloomberg News. He won the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency in 2022. Twitter

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