The Trump campaign slammed the White House and the Biden campaign for calling former President Donald Trump’s mental acuity into question.

‘Never in history has a debate resulted in a candidate’s own donors and surrogates pondering whether their candidate should stay in the race, until now,’ Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital.

The comment comes after the White House and Biden campaign questioned former President Trump’s fitness to serve, a response to questions that continue to swirl around President Biden’s mental acuity.

Asked during a news conference Tuesday if Biden had Alzheimer’s or any form of dementia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said ‘no’ while hinting that the ‘same exact question’ should be asked of the ‘other guy,’ referring to Trump.

Biden continues to face widespread skepticism about his ability to win the election and serve another term as president in the wake of a disastrous debate performance last week, resulting in many calling on the president to step aside and let a younger candidate take over at the top of the ticket.

The Biden campaign has acknowledged the president’s poor performance but pushed back against the idea he would drop out of the race, arguing Biden still has the ability to lead and is the party’s best chance at defeating Trump.

The campaign has also begun calling Trump’s cognitive ability into question, citing times the former president has confused who he was talking about.

‘Donald Trump is unhinged and out-of-control, determined to make this country a dictatorship and punish his enemies with new powers handed to him by the Supreme Court – while also confusing Joe Biden for Barack Obama, Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, and routinely ranting and raving about nonsense like sharks and windmills,’ a campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

But the Trump campaign pushed back hard against the suggestion Wednesday, with Leavitt telling Fox News Digital that Trump ‘undeniably dominated Joe Biden in the debate and held him accountable for his failure, weakness, and dishonesty.’

‘While it’s been another bad week for Biden, it’s been a terrible three and a half years for the nation,’ Leavitt said. ‘Inflation is crushing every family, Biden’s border invasion is bringing crime to every community, and weakness from the White House is encouraging chaos and war around the globe – and that is why President Trump continues to dominate Joe Biden in every poll. Americans feel the sharp contrast in their lives under President Trump and Biden.’

Several top Democratic lawmakers expressed their anger over President Biden’s public denial and deflection about his rocky debate performance, according to a report Wednesday. 

Some Democratic members of Congress told Axios they want Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to privately encourage Biden to step aside. 

Multiple lawmakers reportedly told the outlet they are enraged Biden had slow-walked reaching out to Democratic leadership after the debate, much less the rank-and-file members in competitive races. Those members, who were not named in the report, said they fear the president could jeopardize Democrats’ chances of holding the Senate majority or regaining control of the House in November.   

‘I don’t know who’s making decisions,’ one House Democrat reportedly told Axios. ‘Why the hell isn’t Biden on the phone with congressional leadership?… Everybody now thinks he could cost us the majority.’

The White House said Biden spoke with Jeffries on Tuesday. 

Lauren Hitt, a Biden campaign spokesperson, told Axios the president ‘has spoken personally with multiple elected officials on the Hill and across the battlegrounds since the debate.’

According to the report, lawmakers privately are growing fearful Biden is consulting only family members or people on his payroll in determining whether he should stay in the race. As the president’s inner circle slims, the lawmakers told Axios they’re certain Biden’s family doesn’t want him exposed to outside criticism, even if it comes from friends. 

At a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, Tuesday night, Biden blamed his poor debate performance on his foreign travel in June, which included a visit to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, according to a print pool report with notes from a small group of journalists permitted to attend the private event. 

‘I decided to travel around the world a couple of times,’ Biden reportedly told a group of donors.

‘I didn’t listen to my staff,’ the president said, adding that he ‘came back and nearly fell asleep on stage.’

Biden rested for two days in Delaware and spent another six days preparing for the debate at Camp David in Maryland following his back-to-back trips to Europe, the New York Times reported. 

His debate preparation also never began before 11 a.m. and the president ‘was given time for an afternoon nap each day,’ the newspaper said. 

The White House claimed Biden ‘was working well before then, after exercising.’

Even Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a longtime Biden ally, admitted in an interview Tuesday on MSNBC’s ‘Andrea Mitchell Reports’ that it’s a ‘legitimate question’ to express concern about Biden’s debate performance. 

‘I think it’s a legitimate question to say, is this an episode, or is this a condition? And so when people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate – of both candidates,’ Pelosi said. ‘Both candidates owe whatever test you want to put them to, in terms of their mental acuity and their health – both of them.’ 

Biden also agreed to an interview Friday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News. 

Axios reported that major Democratic donors are now planning to move large contributions instead to House and Senate candidates before what they see as a likely second term for former President Trump. 

Even Democrats who once accused Trump supporters of ‘gaslighting’ by expressing concerns about 81-year-old Biden’s age and mental fitness are reportedly fed up with Biden, more so over his downplaying and deflection in the debate’s aftermath, rather than over the debate itself. 

‘Strangely, we are getting to the point where it may not have been the debate that did him in, but the aftermath of how they’ve handled it,’ a top Democratic operative told Axios.

President Biden is seriously considering whether he can continue on as the Democratic presidential nominee, according to a report.

The New York Times on Wednesday reported that Biden has told a ‘key ally’ that he knows he may not be able to win re-election if he cannot convince the American people he is fit to serve after his disastrous debate performance. 

‘The president, who the ally emphasized is still deeply in the fight for re-election, understands that his next few appearances heading into the holiday weekend — including an interview scheduled for Friday with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — must go well,’ the report said. 

‘He knows if he has two more events like that, we’re in a different place’ by the end of the weekend, the unnamed source told the Times. 

Another top adviser to the president reportedly said Biden was ‘well aware of the political challenge he faces.’ 

White House spokesman Andrew Bates disputed the report shortly after it was published.

‘That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment, we would have told them so,’ he told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy Biden campaign manager, likewise said on Wednesday the report was ‘false’ during an appearance on CNN.

‘There are a number of rumors floating out there. The president is in this race to win it. He is the Democratic nominee. And from our perspective, we are going to continue to do everything we can to make sure that we’re building a campaign apparatus, to reach voters,’ Fulks said. 

Biden, who at age 81 is the oldest president in the nation’s history, is facing the roughest stretch of his bid for a second term in the White House. 

His halting delivery and stumbling answers at the CNN Presidential Debate on Thursday sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and party donors for Biden to step aside as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer. In the past 24 hours, a small but growing number of elected Democrats have also urged the president to end his re-election bid.

Biden will meet with Democratic governors at the White House on Wednesday, just days after Democratic Governors Association (DGA) Chair Gov. Tim Walz led a conference call with the DGA to discuss the fallout from the debate. 

A number of the governors, including some who have been speculated as potential replacements on the extreme long-shot chance that Biden would step away from his re-election bid, have acknowledged the president’s debate performance was shaky but remained committed to supporting the president.

A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released this week found that more than 4 in 10 Democrats said the Democratic Party should intervene and replace Biden as the nominee. Overall, 54% of the voters polled were in favor of Biden dropping out.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.

There are multiple letters circulating among House Democrats that would call for President Biden to step aside in the 2024 White House race, two sources familiar with those discussions told Fox News Digital.

Efforts have included both vulnerable Democrats in swing districts and left-wing lawmakers in safe seats, one of the sources said.

The letters are mainly being circulated at the member level right now, sources said, with lawmakers closely guarding the monumental decision they are weighing.

‘Everyone is guarded now,’ one senior House Democratic member told Fox News. ‘People may be just doing what they believe is best for them.’

It comes after Reuters first reported that a group of 25 House Democrats was preparing to call on Biden to step aside as the 2024 candidate if he does not buck concerns that he’s not up to the task within a matter of days.

House Democratic leaders have not seen that letter, Fox News is told.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News was first to report on the effort by safe-seat Democrats on Wednesday.

The news emerges as more Democrats come forward to publicly express their concerns about the 81-year-old president’s fitness for office. Questions about his physical and mental condition were brought to the forefront during last Thursday’s debate between Biden and former President Trump.

Democrats are now questioning whether Biden is the best positioned candidate to beat Trump, who they largely view as a threat to democracy.

The dam broke on Tuesday afternoon when Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, became the first sitting House Democrat to outright call for Biden to pull out of the race.

‘My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved,’ Doggett said in a statement. ‘Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.’

Hours later, Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash. – two of the most vulnerable Democrats this election cycle – came out and said Biden would likely lose to Trump.

The Biden campaign told Fox News Digital in response to Democrats’ concerns, ‘He is absolutely not dropping out.’

Biden’s allies have pointed out over the last couple of days that he has been in contact with both Congressional Democratic leaders, and that he’s taken steps to alleviate concerns like agreeing to a sit-down interview with ABC News and announcing a press conference for the coming days

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Former President Trump’s campaign says it has out raised President Biden over the past three months and showcases that it has more cash-on-hand.

Trump’s campaign announced on Tuesday that it and the Republican National Committee hauled in a staggering $331 million during the April through June second quarter of 2024 fundraising, topping the massive $264 million raked in by the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee the past three months.

And the former president’s campaign spotlighted that it had $284.9 million in its coffers as of the end of June, compared to $240 million for Biden.

But Biden hauled in $127 million in June fundraising, topping the $111.8 million Trump raised last month.

‘President Trump’s campaign fundraising operation is thriving day after day and month after month. Winning this quarter brought us a cash on hand advantage, which is punctuated by a Biden burn rate that grows while yielding no tangible results for them,’ Trump co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles emphasized in a statement.

The Trump and Biden campaign cash reports were released as the president’s campaign tries to flip the script on the brutal narrative coming out of last week’s first debate.

Biden, who at age 81 is the oldest president in the nation’s history, is facing the roughest stretch of his bid for a second term in the White House. This, after his halting delivery and stumbling answers at the debate, sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party elected officials and donors for Biden to step aside as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

A sizable chunk of Biden’s June’s haul was raked in at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles with former President Obama, Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and late night TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. The campaign said after the event that it set a new Democratic Party fundraising record with a $30 million haul. 

The president also brought in over $8 million a few days later at a fundraiser at the Northern Virginia home of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, where Biden was also joined by former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and former Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the Democrats’ 2016 standard-bearer.

But boosting the June fundraising to higher heights was the $33 million the campaign says was raised last Thursday through Saturday, the day of the first presidential debate and the following two days. And the Biden campaign showcased that their single best hour of fundraising this cycle came during the 11pm to midnight eastern hour on Thursday, immediately after the end of the debate with Trump in Atlanta, Georgia.

But boosting the June fundraising to higher heights was the $33 million the campaign says was raised last Thursday through Saturday, the day of the first presidential debate and the following two days. And the Biden campaign showcased that their single best hour of fundraising this cycle came during the 11pm to midnight eastern hour on Thursday, immediately after the end of the debate with Trump in Atlanta, Georgia.

Biden and the DNC enjoyed a large fundraising lead over Trump and the Republican National Committee earlier this year. But Trump and the RNC topped Biden and the DNC in fundraising for the first time in April.

And in May, the Trump campaign and the RNC, fueled in part by a fundraising surge following the former president’s history-making guilty verdicts in his criminal trial, combined hauled in a stunning $141 million, easily besting Biden and the DNC.

Fundraising, along with public opinion polling, is a key metric used to measure the strength of a candidate and their campaign. Money raised can be used to build up grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote operations, staffing, travel and ads, among other things.

The Biden campaign has been using its funds to build up what appears to be a very formidable ground operation in the key battleground states and announced two weeks ago that they had hired their 1,000th staffer and had opened over 200 coordinated offices in the swing states. The Biden campaign enjoys a large organizational advantage over the Trump campaign when it comes to grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote ground game efforts in the states that will likely decide the outcome of the election rematch.

‘Team Biden-Harris grew its historic war chest while also significantly expanding its footprint and operations both in HQ and across the key states – the resources needed to win a close election,’ the campaign highlighted in a release.

But the Trump campaign argues that Biden’s team has been wasting their money.

‘Despite Biden spending nearly $120 million on tv, cable and radio alone, polling and voter enthusiasm continue to grow for President Trump. This fundraising momentum is likely to grow even more as we head into a world-class convention and see the Democrats continue their circular firing squad in the aftermath of Biden’s debate collapse,’ LaCivita and Wiles argued in their statement.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will address the briefing room Tuesday for the first time since President Biden’s rocky debate performance. 

In the aftermath of Thursday’s debate in Atlanta, Jean-Pierre did hold a press gaggle aboard Air Force One while en route to Queens, New York, on Friday, but Tuesday will be the first time she returns to the White House briefing room to field questions on camera. Biden returned to the White House Monday night after gathering with family at Camp David in Maryland over the weekend. 

During the press gaggle with Jean-Pierre, campaign communications director Michael Tyler referenced Biden’s remarks at a Friday post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Reading from a teleprompter and addressing a live audience, in contrast with the debate, the president told cheering supporters, ‘I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.’ 

‘Obviously, I think the president said himself he’s not as good as a debater as he used to be. He doesn’t walk or talk as smoothly as he used to. But he knows how to fight like hell. And I think he showed that today in North Carolina,’ Tyler said. ‘And so, that’s what the American people are going to continue to see day in and day out for the remainder of this campaign: a president in Joe Biden who understands he’s never going to stop fighting for the American people, and he’s never going to stop contrasting that against Donald Trump, who every single day is clearly fighting for himself. 

‘So, I think the President is honest about his own performance. But as far as what last night’s debate actually provided for the American people, it — it crystallized the threat — it begins to crystallize the threat that Donald Trump poses,’ he added. 

After a string of campaign events in New York and New Jersey on Saturday, first lady Jill Biden and the president’s children and grandchildren gathered at Camp David reportedly to encourage the president to stay in the race despite uproar within the Democratic Party questioning whether the current commander-in-chief is a viable candidate to nominate for a second term. 

Reports said Biden’s family on Sunday blamed campaign staffers, arguing they did not adequately prepare the president for the CNN debate against former President Trump. 

According to a new report by Politico on Tuesday, a senior administration official claimed that some of President Biden’s top officials are ‘scared s—less’ of displeasing him in daily briefings. 

‘It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’’ a senior administration official told Politico on background. ‘It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared [s—less] of him.’

The official told Politico that Biden is unwilling to take advice from outside his small inner circle, becoming increasingly isolated from wider public opinion and input.

‘He doesn’t take advice from anyone other than those few top aides, and it becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it,’ the official reportedly told Politico.

White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates pushed back on the Politico report’s claim that staff are afraid of the president, telling Fox News Digital, ‘That’s simply not who [Biden] is.’ 

Jeane-Pierre’s White House press briefing is scheduled to start Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Fox News’ Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.