Supreme Court to decide Trump immunity TODAY as Biden fights to save re-election campaign: Follow US politics live updates

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior Political Reporter

Democratic Party leaders desperately pleaded with grassroots committee members not to abandon President Joe Biden despite his debate performance.

During a secret call after the CNN debate in Atlanta on Thursday, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez attempted to calm concerns about the president’s viability as their 2024 nominee.

But those on the call say leaders are misleading them and asking them to ignore obvious signs of mental decline. They believe Biden, 81, may no longer be the best person for the job.

With the Democratic Convention just a month and a half away, many Party members, strategists and donors are wondering if they should look for a replacement.

Joe Salazar, an elected DNC member from Colorado who was on the call, said:

I was hoping for a more substantive conversation rather than ‘Hey, let’s go out and just be entertainers,’ without actually addressing a very serious topic that played out on American television for millions of people to see.

There were many things that could have been said to address the situation, but we didn’t. We were being deceived.

Joe Biden feels “humiliated” and “painfully self-conscious” of his image following his calamitous debate performance, as he prepares to discuss the future of his re-election campaign.

The president has retreated to Camp David with his wife, children and grandchildren to take a break from the campaign trail and weigh his options. NBC News first reported

Experts described Biden’s mood as “humiliated and lacking confidence” after his confrontation with Donald Trump, in which he stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought several times.