"Pyrrhic victory": Steve Bannon claims Biden withdrawing from the race would actually hurt Trump

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who begins a four-month prison sentence on Monday, says a Biden withdrawal from the presidential race could backfire on the Trump campaign.

After a shaky performance at the presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday, voters and media critics alike are calling for Biden to step down from the race for a Democratic candidate, even as the president's campaign insists he will be the party's nominee in November.

Bannon, who was convicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 investigation, predicted the president’s performance would lead to a collapse in poll numbers and ultimately take out what he said was Trump’s weakest opponent. The Trump campaign has focused so heavily on upending Biden that Bannon said a replacement could be a “wildcard,” the Washington Post reported.

“The campaign is starting to wake up after spiking the football, I think wrongly,” Bannon told the Washington Post. “Trump’s Thursday was a Pyrrhic victory .… You’re going to take out a guy you know you can beat and beat badly, and we’re going to have a wild card.”

Though the Biden campaign has acknowledged his weak debate performance, staff are adamant he will remain in the presidential race. "The bedwetting brigade is calling for Joe Biden to 'drop out.' That is the best possible way for Donald Trump to win and us to lose," Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in an email to supporters.

Bannon, who “keeps in pretty good contact” with Trump, said if Biden withdraws, Republicans should harp on the last-minute change after primary elections have already taken place.

“We must weaponize their process and show the nation how callous they were, how self-serving they were, how they didn’t put the good of the nation first, they put the good of personal ambition first,” he told the Post.