Biden campaign lays out path forward to staff in internal memo

President Joe Biden's campaign Thursday laid out what it views as its path to victory in an internal memo as the Democratic Party convulses over the fallout from his shocking debate last month.

The memo, obtained by ABC News, is from campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who said that Biden's "clearest pathway" to victory runs through the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, though it insists that states such as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina aren't "out of reach."

Still, the two campaign leaders conceded that "movement" after the debate is "real" but "not a sea-change in the state of the race."

The memo insisted that the Biden campaign is "not only prepared to win a close election, it has been designed to win a close election from the beginning" and that much of the work moving forward will be dedicated to framing the race as a choice between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

"We know, both from election results and from research, that when the choice is between Donald Trump's extremism and Joe Biden's record of delivering for the American people -- and when Democrats have an operation capable of persuading and mobilizing voters on the ground -- we win," O'Malley Dillon and Chavez Rodriguez wrote.

The memo comes as the president and his inner circle fight back slowly growing calls for him to drop out of the 2024 race, with Democrats worrying that his debate performance -- characterized by meandering answers and an empty gaze -- would turn off voters who polls showed were already concerned the 81-year-old president wasn't fit for a second term.

Speculation has spiked over how Vice President Kamala Harris would fare against Trump should Biden drop out, though other names bandied about as replacements include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Georgia Gov. Sen. Raphael Warnock.

The Biden campaign doubled down on its assertions that Biden is best situated to take Trump on, a claim that some Democrats have scoffed at.

"There is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump," the memo said. "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."

However, polling shows a steep climb ahead for Biden.

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released Thursday showed a statistically tied horse race with Trump, but that 85% of Americans believe that he is too old for a second term and that 54% of Biden supporters think he should drop out of the race.

The Associated Press first reported on the Biden campaign's memo.