Democratic strategists and party insiders say the post-debate crisis response is doing just as much damage to President Biden’s chances of beating former President Trump in November as the disastrous debate performance itself.
They say there is little Biden can do to change the situation unless he drops out of the race, a view shared by a majority of Democratic senators and a majority of Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
Biden’s gaffes at the NATO summit and in interviews with George Stephanopoulos and Black Entertainment Television, his fading support from media heavyweights such as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, and worsening divisions within the Democratic Party have only strengthened the general view that Biden cannot beat Trump.
Growing pessimism about Biden’s candidacy has led to renewed calls among Democratic lawmakers for him to drop out of the race to avoid a potential disaster in November.
Democratic strategists say those voices are likely to double down and become even louder next week if Biden continues to campaign after the weekend.
They also warned that Biden’s fundraising, which took a major hit this month, will continue to struggle, making it even more difficult for the president to make a comeback against Trump in the polls.
A Democratic strategist close to lawmakers who have called on Biden to assure Democrats he can win the November election said his team has failed to lay out a clear path to victory.
“Everyone is saying they need more information and, frankly, the last two weeks have been worse in many ways than the actual debate because they haven’t made a plan and they haven’t followed through on it,” the source said.
Strategists said Biden appeared to be a losing candidate going into the race and his chances of winning plummeted after the debate and further declined after the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, unified Republicans and rallied voters.
“A big part of it is money,” the source said, warning that “donors aren’t just freezing the Biden campaign, they’re locking everyone out,” noting that not only are big donors withholding donations, but grassroots “online funding is also slowing.”
Democratic senators and representatives last week said Biden’s exclusive interview with Stephanopoulos immediately after the debate changed little and contained some embarrassing moments, including Biden’s lack of recollection of whether he had watched the debate recording and his avoidance of a question about whether he would undergo independent cognitive testing.
Later, at a NATO summit, Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin,” but quickly realized the mistake, and just hours later mistakenly referred to Vice President Harris as “President Trump.”
Another embarrassing gaffe came during an interview with Black Entertainment Television, when Biden seemed to have trouble remembering Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s name, simply calling him a “black man.”
The strategist said Biden has failed over the past three weeks to change the minds of his fellow Democratic critics about his fitness to be president.
“He has no chance of winning and he has to reach this conclusion on his own, which it appears he will,” the source said. “They’re listening to voters, they’re listening to donors who have been asking the campaign, ‘What’s the path to victory?’ and they don’t have the answers.”
Democratic senators left meetings with Biden campaign officials last week feeling unsatisfied with their case for why Biden should remain the party’s nominee.
Campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and senior advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti argued that Biden is “in the zone” to be competitive in battleground states, and pointed to a Washington Post/ABC News poll showing Biden and Trump neck and neck nationally.
But since then, the president’s polling numbers have worsened.
Ann AP/NORC Public Policy Center Poll A poll released Thursday showed that two-thirds of Democrats think Biden should drop out of the race and six in 10 Democrats think Harris would do a good job as the party’s presidential nominee.
a CBS News/YouGov Poll A poll released Thursday showed Trump currently leading Biden by five points nationally, while an Emerson College poll showed the former president leading in seven battleground states.
Another veteran Democratic strategist said Biden has been suffering political damage almost every day since the debate, with growing calls among Democrats and donors for him to give up on reelection.
“It’s tough having each day go by like this. I think it’s gotten to the point where it’s worse post-debate than it was during the debate,” the source said.
The strategist said Biden’s “brain gaffes” are “only going to get worse.”
“The president should be happy that it’s summer and Saturday Night Live isn’t on every week,” the adviser added.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said Friday that Biden is “considering” which Democratic candidate has the best chance of beating Trump.
“I think the president is thinking about what his considerations are about: who is the best candidate to win the election in November and to advance the values and priorities of the Democratic Party in this campaign,” Coons said at the Aspen Security Forum.
Biden also offered a strong rebuttal to Democrats who say he hasn’t done enough to address concerns about his candidacy, pointing to the president’s leadership at last week’s NATO meeting in Washington and his grueling campaign schedule.
“He presided over meeting after meeting at the three-day NATO summit, the strongest in NATO history, he held press conferences, campaign events and rallies, and still some say he doesn’t have the strength or the ability to be the next president. I don’t think so,” he said.
But Biden’s comeback attempt hasn’t gone as well as many Democrats had hoped.
The tense exchange with Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) took place during a conference call last weekend after Crow asked whether concerns about Biden’s age, health and mental health posed a national security risk.
“I don’t want to hear that nonsense,” Biden responded angrily.
Biden vented his frustrations in a separate exclusive interview with NBC host Lester Holt, which campaign strategists hoped would help reframe public opinion.
After Holt noted that Biden seemed confused at times during the debate, Biden criticized the media for not doing more to fact-check Trump’s “28 lies” during the debate.
At one point, the president yelled in anger: “What’s wrong with you guys? Come on,” he said.
Biden held several rallies and news conferences in Washington and gave one-on-one interviews but did not enter into the kind of unscripted situations some Democratic commentators in Congress had expected over the past two and a half weeks.
Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat who for days had refrained from calling for Biden to resign, said Friday that he had finally come to the conclusion that Biden “is no longer the best person to convince Americans that Trump should not be elected and that Republicans should not take control of Congress.”
As of Friday afternoon, three Democratic senators and at least 30 House members had called on Biden to drop out of the race.
On Friday alone, 10 House Democrats participated in the call: Reps. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Jared Huffman (Calif.), Mark Veasey (Texas), Mark Pocan (Wis.), Betty McCollum (Min.), Kathy Kastle (Fla.), Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (Ill.), Gabe Vázquez (N.M.), Shawn Kasten (Ill.) and Landsman.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) called on Biden to step down on Thursday evening, and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-Minn.) followed suit on Friday. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and California Senate candidate Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) have also urged Biden to step down.
Biden returned to Delaware to quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday following an event in Las Vegas.
