President Joe Biden and his team spent the weekend on a mission to convince Democratic Party members and voters that he is still fit for office and the right choice for their presidential bid in November.
Biden was forced to play damage control all weekend after a car crash debate against former President Donald Trump.
Democrats panicked after Biden stumbled and mumbled during Thursday’s debate and immediately said his hoarse, hard-to-hear voice was the result of a cold and tried to sell the line that it was just a “slow start.” ‘
But the reality is that Americans saw an 81-year-old president who looked his age. He repeatedly lost his train of thought and appeared on stage with his mouth open and a blank stare or with wide eyes whenever Trump spoke.
The day after the debate, the president was more forceful at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, with first lady Jill Biden.
Democrats scrambled over the weekend to do damage control after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on Thursday sparked calls for him to drop out of the race.
But it was too late, and many Democratic donors and strategists were already calling for him to step aside and allow a new candidate to emerge before the nominating convention in August.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez held a call Saturday afternoon seeking to reassure grassroots members of the party about Biden’s viability as a candidate.
According to some of those on the call, party leaders largely ignored Biden’s weak performance in Atlanta on Thursday and downplayed the avalanche of criticism that followed. No one was able to ask questions and the chat function was disabled.
Members felt misled by Harrison and Rodriguez and said they were being asked to ignore the anger of the party’s state of affairs: either toe the line and back Biden’s candidacy or scramble to find a replacement in just a month.
Harrison offered what was described as an optimistic assessment of Biden’s path forward.
“I was hoping for a more substantive conversation rather than ‘Hey, let’s go out and just be entertainers,’ without really addressing a very serious issue that played out on American television for millions of people to see,” said Joe Salazar, an elected member of the Colorado Democratic National Committee who was on the call said, according to the Associated Press.
He added: “There were many things that could have been said to address the situation, but we didn’t understand it. We were being misled.”
Also on Saturday, Biden stopped by a $250,000-a-person Hampton’s fundraiser at hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein’s 18-acre beach estate.
Some donors skipped the event, and The New York Times reports that several mega-donors were trying to contact Jill Biden to convince her husband to drop out for a younger candidate.
“A lot of people blame his wife… for not telling him (to step aside),” one told the New York Post.
According to Anthony Scaramucci, who attended the fundraiser, Biden used a teleprompter when he spoke to donors in the living room of the beach house.
After Saturday’s campaign stop and fundraiser, the first couple headed straight back to the presidential retreat at Camp David, where Biden spent seven days preparing for the debate ahead of his showdown with Trump at CNN headquarters.
He was willing to discuss with his wife and family the future of his political campaign.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden held a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, the day after the debate, where the president appeared more forceful and defended his viability as a candidate, although he acknowledged that his debate performance could have been better.
Joe and Jill brought their granddaughters Natalie and Finnegan Biden to attend a fundraiser in Hampton on Saturday, where the president used a teleprompter as he spoke to donors at hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein’s beach house.
While concerns about Biden’s mental health and calls for him to step aside have been kept private for the past several months, Democrats are now saying the quiet part out loud.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) went further than most, saying, “There are very honest, serious, rigorous conversations taking place at all levels of our party.”
“We’re having a serious conversation about what to do,” he said in an interview on MSNBC’s Velshi show. “One thing I can tell you is that regardless of what President Biden decides, our party will be unified.”
“Whether or not he is the keynote speaker at our convention,” he added. “He will be the figure around whom we will unite to move forward and defeat the forces of authoritarianism and reaction in the country.”