Biden confronts decisive day in his campaign, as his team says no Democrat would do better

The Biden campaign is laying out what it sees as its path to winning the White House in a new memo sent to its staffers Thursday, saying that winning the Blue Wall states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan is the “clearest pathway” to victory.

Though senior aides write in the memo that they could clinch 270 electoral votes in a number of ways, the new memo, obtained by the Associated Press, says those three states are critical and why President Joe Biden has prioritized those areas in his recent travels.

The memo, from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, also contends that Biden remains the strongest Democratic opponent to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

“There is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” the memo says. “Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already baked in is President Biden.”

The memo comes as Biden is heading into a potentially decisive day in his reelection campaign, delivering a highly anticipated press conference showcasing his ability and sending his team to meet privately with skeptical senators on Capitol Hill as numbers of lawmakers call for him to exit the race.