Report: Biden's Family Considers Exit Plan

President Biden on Friday promised he'd be back on the campaign trail next week, apparently dashing predictions he might bow out of the race as early as this weekend. In a statement, Biden said he wanted to make the case against Donald Trump and speak about "my own record and the vision that I have for America," per the New York Times. (Biden has been off the trail the last few days after testing positive for COVID.) Other developments in the narrative of whether Biden will remain atop the Democratic ticket:

• More calls: Five more House Democrats and a third Democratic senator called on Biden to withdraw on Friday. Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Jesús "Chuy" García of Illinois, and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin issued a joint statement, reports the Hill. And Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois separately asked Biden to "pass the torch" in a Chicago Tribune op-ed. That's a total of 28 House Democrats now, per Fox News. Meanwhile, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico joined fellow Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Peter Welch of Vermont in making the same request.

• Campaign chair: Biden campaign chief Jen O'Malley Dillon appeared on the Biden-friendly Morning Joe show Friday and asserted, "Absolutely the president's in this race," per Politico. However, O'Malley Dillon acknowledged a "slippage of support" for the president. "Look, I'm not here to just say this is an elite and media narrative," she said. "We have to understand exactly what we're seeing as we've talked about. We know that we've slipped a bit from the debate, and we know that the president has to prove to the American people exactly what he believes."
• His family: NBC News reports that members of Biden's family "have discussed what an exit from his campaign might look like." The story, based on two anonymous sources, say family members want a good plan in place that would put Democrats in a position to defeat Donald Trump and that would "be worthy of the more than five decades he has served the country in elected office." A White House spokesperson flatly denied the report.

(More President Biden 2024 stories.)