Despite President Joe Biden’s best efforts over the weekend to salvage his reelection campaign in the wake of his dismal debate performance, more existential doubts than ever before remain regarding his candidacy.
After multiple engagements in which he sought to calm Democratic voters, leaders, and contributors’ fears that he’s too elderly to defeat Trump or run for reelection, Biden is now spending time alone with his family at Camp David. His unsteady and confused performance at Thursday night’s AWN event threw the campaign for a loop and has him facing demands to give way to a younger contender with little over four months to go until the election.
Supporters of Joe Biden spent the weekend berating media critics who had called for his resignation and arguing that preliminary results demonstrated that Biden’s disastrous performance had not changed the overall trajectory of the campaign. Meanwhile, prominent Democrats flocked to Sunday talk shows in an effort to refocus attention on Trump.
In an interview with Dana Bash of AWN’s “State of the Union,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Let us not make a judgment about a presidency on one debate.” “The distinction between Joe Biden and the previous president is glaringly obvious. Let’s discuss the implications for people’s lives.” Rep. James Clyburn (SC), a lifelong Biden supporter, told Bash that his friend had a “bad” debate but blamed the fact that Biden’s workers bombarded him with data.
As AWN’s MJ Lee and Jeff Zeleny reported on Sunday, the president’s family—who would play a pivotal role in determining the campaign’s trajectory—now thinks Biden should remain in the race and keep fighting. They are waiting for polling data and are prepared for some erosion of his position. However, if the president were to believe that withdrawing from the race would be the wisest course of action in the event of a downward spiral, that perspective may change.
Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a trusted advisor of the president, claimed on Monday’s “AWN This Morning” that Biden’s expressionless, gaping eyes during the debate were indicative of “a president who is frankly thunderstruck by just how aggressively Donald Trump is lying about everything.”
Coons told Kasie Hunt, “I think everyone’s entitled to have a bad night.” However, she did say that Biden should now show “more unscripted and off the record moments.”
The Democratic tactic of downplaying Biden’s performance by saying that a single poor performance does not invalidate his record of accomplishments overlooks the crucial question that many voters have been grappling with for months: Can Biden’s physical and mental health prevent him from serving another four years?
Republicans are reiterating their stance on the matter. A nationwide audience witnessed it. Does anyone else happen to have seen it? Our enemies noticed it. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum—a possible Trump vice presidential nominee—mentioned that the heads of state from Russia, China, and Iran all noticed it.
Leading Democrats openly support Biden
No indication has emerged that the 81-year-old president is seriously considering withdrawing from the race, leaving the party to scramble to pick a replacement.
During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Democratic Governor Wes Moore of Maryland stated, “Joe Biden is not going to take himself out of this race, nor should he.”
There is no practical way for the party to proceed beyond Biden as the presumed nominee following his dominance in the Democratic primaries, unless the president determines that it is time. A number of party heavyweights are worried that launching a fresh nomination race at this late stage may spark an internal party coup that would ultimately put Trump in the White House. All the while, Biden has maintained that he is qualified to serve. Even if they did, many in the party would accuse the rising star Democrat of betraying the party and their career prospects would be jeopardized.
After acknowledging he “didn’t have a great night” in Atlanta and walking more slowly and speaking less smoothly than before, the president acknowledged the problem during a fundraising event in New Jersey on Saturday night. Though he swore he would endure.
As of right now, it seems like Biden’s campaign has managed to avoid the most pressing threat. His campaign reported that he still has a healthy fundraising campaign going, with over $33 million raised in the days after the debate. Even while he’s having a complete breakdown behind the scenes, the fact that the big shots are prepared to defend him on television shows that he still has the support of his party.
A new wave of terror may break out, meanwhile, if a series of poor surveys revealed that the debate had a devastating effect on an already difficult reelection campaign. Not only that, but no sitting president or presumed nominee in recent memory has ever been subjected to such pressure from once-friendly media commentators who are now pushing for Biden to declare his rejection of the Democratic candidacy in August in Chicago.
According to a Saturday article by AWN, Democratic donors are divided on whether to support Biden or look for a different nominee, no matter how difficult that may be. In light of the Supreme Court’s recent demonstration of the profound and irreversible impact of unchecked conservative rule on the nation, any indication that the president could undermine Democratic aspirations of retaining the Senate and reclaiming the House could strengthen the position of those seeking change.
The Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling on Monday regarding Trump’s assertion that he was protected from legal consequences for his presidential actions. This case highlights his conviction that he will possess nearly limitless authority upon reelection. Throughout his reelection campaign, Biden has made assertions that Trump will undermine democracy. However, his disastrous debate performance has only served to heighten doubts about the seriousness of the threat, leading Democrats to consider other, more secure options.
An indication of a potential opposition to Biden
Despite prominent party members openly supporting Biden (doing otherwise would be viewed as betrayal), Thursday night’s debate left many Democrats feeling very disturbed. According to multiple sources, a large number of party members quietly lamented the situation over the weekend and are now nervously anticipating the November election.
On the other hand, not a single high-ranking official has even hinted at secret opposition to Biden. Legislator Jamie Raskin of Maryland said MSNBC that the group was engaged in “a very serious conversation about what to do.” “Our party is going to be unified regardless of what President Biden decides, and our party also needs him at the very center of our deliberations in our campaign,” Raskin continued.
Raskin went on to say, “Our convention will have Biden as its keynote speaker regardless of whether he is a candidate or not.”
Over the weekend, Biden’s team sent a barrage of announcements, fundraising drives, and memoranda stating that he would not step down as senator. Without a doubt, Joe Biden will be the Democratic candidate. It was “end of story” in the campaign’s email to backers. A vote was cast. His victory was decisive. Not to mention that Donald Trump would be able to address American voters unimpeded if he were to withdraw, which would cause weeks of anarchy, infighting within the party, and a number of contenders to stumble into a violent convention floor brawl.
But Biden was so ineffective on Thursday night that Trump had plenty of opportunity to address the voters unchallenged, and the former president was able to get away with a barrage of lies. Whenever Biden had the opportunity to attack Trump on important Democratic issues like abortion, he would instead shift the conversation back to his own weaknesses, like immigration.
But the vicious retaliation from Biden’s camp isn’t addressing the core concerns raised after a debate that left many Democrats doubting Biden’s ability to defeat Trump.
Polls have consistently showed that most people think the president is too elderly to serve a second term, which would finish when he is 86 years old. As a result, the president was under immense pressure leading up to the confrontation. Biden looks very different even from when he first entered office in 2021, and he has grown visibly more vulnerable in the past few years.
At a critical juncture in the campaign, when more than 50 million people were watching, he did the exact opposite of allotting such concerns to rest. Even though Biden performed admirably at a planned campaign event in North Carolina on Friday, the image of a president succumbing to the passage of time in his televised confrontation with Trump will be indelible. Voters witnessed the visceral and diminished condition of Biden firsthand.
