The Biden campaign attempted damage control with its supporters over the weekend, blaming the “bedwetters” who panicked over his disastrous presidential debate defeat.
In a fundraising appeal to supporters, deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty stressed that Biden remains the leading Democratic presidential nominee.
“The bedwetter group is calling for Joe Biden to ‘step back’ – that’s the best way for Donald Trump to win and for us to lose,” Flaherty said in an email titled “7 Things to Tell Your Friends After the Debate – and 4 Things You Can Do.”
“Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee, that’s it. End of story,” he continued. “And if he drops out, it will lead to weeks of chaos, intraparty fighting and candidates limping into a fierce convention brawl.”
Flaherty sought to ease Democratic fears by citing polling data that shows Biden, 81, and Vice President Kamala Harris are the most formidable Democrats to challenge former President Trump and warning of the chaos that would result if Biden were to drop out.
A Data for Progress poll cited by Flaherty in his email showed Trump leading all top Democrats, including Biden.
The poll showed Biden and Harris receiving the most votes with 45% each, followed by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on 44%, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-Illinois) and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on 43%.
Flaherty added, “And ultimately, they’re going to switch to a candidate who, according to the polls, has a lower chance of winning than Joe Biden, the only person to have beaten Donald Trump.”
Flaherty also acknowledged in his email that the discussions had been “tough.”
“Yes, the debate got off to a rough start, but voters learned what a threat Donald Trump is to the country. It was more than just lies, although Trump lied a lot,” he wrote.
Election data expert Nate Silver rejected Flaherty’s theory about X, saying, “Literally everyone in this poll is less well-known than Biden, yet they’re actually outperforming him, which generally tends to drive down polls.”
“The fact that this is the best argument they could come up with shows how poor their arguments are.”
During Thursday’s debate, which the Biden campaign hosted last month, Biden began speaking huskily, lost his train of thought and repeatedly stared blankly off camera with his mouth agape.
Concerns about Biden’s age have been floating around for months, with his typical response to questions about his age being, “Look at me.”
An estimated 51 million people did just that on Thursday, and his rambling, incoherent response prompted calls for him to resign from papers including The New York Times and The Atlantic Journal Constitution.
Biden himself acknowledged that the debate did not go his way.
“I can’t walk as easily as I used to, I can’t talk as fluently as I used to, I can’t debate as well as I used to. I wouldn’t be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart that I could do this job,” Biden said at a post-debate rally in Ralph Lauren, North Carolina, on Friday.
“The stakes are too high”
Biden is expected to be sworn in virtually as the party’s presidential nominee in the coming weeks.
At 81, he is already the oldest president in US history (though he would surpass that if Trump wins and serves a second term), and will be 86 at the end of his second term.
First Lady Jill Biden, who helped Biden off the stage after the debate, also dismissed those concerns.
“Joe is not just the right person for the job, he is the only person right for the job,” she told Pooling reporters.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez held a conference call with committee members on Saturday to try to ease their concerns.
Later that day, Jen O’Malley Dillon of the Biden-Harris campaign released a memo arguing that Biden’s position in battleground states remains competitive.
“It’s a familiar story: After Thursday night’s debate, Washington voters are edging out Joe Biden. But the data from battleground states tells a different story,” she wrote.
So far, some of the most prominent Democrats have endorsed Biden, including former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York).
