Frustrated and defensive about their own political predicament, Democrats have blasted the media for its relentless focus on questions about whether Biden is mentally and physically fit to serve another four years in office and for doubts about Biden that have divided the party.
Senate Democrats were accustomed to the media attention on Capitol Hill being focused on former President Trump.
Trump has not been in the White House since January 2021, but he has stirred up a wide range of controversies, from his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him to his repeated attacks on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to his indictment on 91 felony counts, keeping Republican lawmakers busy dodging tough questions about the former president.
Some Senate Democrats worry that, at least for now, they have lost the media, in addition to other issues including inflation, unchecked migration at the southern border and Biden’s low approval ratings.
Sen. Chris Coons (Delaware), the Biden campaign’s national co-chair, got into a heated exchange with reporters when asked about warnings from other Democratic senators that Biden could lose by a large margin to Trump.
“Have any of you asked us about Trump’s apparent unfitness for office?” Coons asked reporters on Capitol Hill.
“We have two candidates in the United States presidential election, but over the last 10 days, every question you’ve asked me has been about Biden and his path to victory,” Coons said, clearly frustrated by the biased coverage of the election.
He criticized media pundits for slamming Biden for his gaffes at the Atlanta debate while largely ignoring Trump’s onstage “lies.”
“Donald Trump’s performance in the debates? Shocking. Full of lies,” Coons said. “How many days have you asked me about Trump? This week on NATO, we all just met with Zelensky.”
Coons criticized reporters for focusing too much on a handful of senators, such as Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), who have said Biden is headed for defeat in the November election, arguing that they represent only a small minority of the Democratic caucus.
“Because Michael said it, were there 12 other people who said the same thing? I don’t think so,” he said.
Republican lawmakers seemed relieved to be free to roam the corridors of the Capitol for a week after the July 4 recess, largely unencumbered by thorny issues about President Trump and divisions within their party.
“I love it,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said as he walked unimpressed past the TV and newspaper reporters stationed outside the Judiciary Committee hearing room.
Speaking at a rally at Detroit’s Renaissance High School on Friday, Biden criticized media coverage of his race.
“They’re attacking me because I get my name wrong sometimes,” Biden said, but the crowd booed when he mentioned the national newspaper.
“You made me the candidate. No one else: the media, the pundits, the insiders, the donors,” he declared to the crowd. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a Trump ally, said earlier this month that Biden had “lost the media” and predicted his campaign was “dead.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) accused journalists of being “angry” about Biden running for a second term, suggesting the media was fueling the president’s political woes more than the voices of disillusioned Democrats and disgruntled voters.
“Joe Biden is our supporter, he’s my supporter, he’s the only person who beat Trump, and he’s the one person who I don’t understand why everyone in your industry is so upset about it,” Fetterman fumed, surrounded by a group of reporters after Democratic senators discussed Biden’s political viability at a lunch outside the Senate chamber.
One Democratic senator, who spoke anonymously about Biden’s tough political predicament, said while the Biden campaign has been eager to shift the focus to Trump, a flurry of calls from the media and Democrats for Biden to give up on reelection has kept the spotlight on Biden’s mental and physical health.
“Of course his goal is to shift the attention back to Trump, but I don’t see how he can accomplish that when the American public and the press continue to focus on Biden,” the senator said.
“If the questions focus on Biden’s qualifications and Trump is having a blast,” it would lead to a “major drop in enthusiasm” among Democratic voters, the source warned.
Senate Democratic Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois complained that it was time for news directors and editors to move on to new topics.
Asked how much longer Democrats would continue to debate the question of whether Biden should remain the leading nominee, Durbin countered, “As long as the cameras are on and reporters are asking the same questions every day.”
“At some point, someone at your station has to decide there’s a different problem,” Durbin told TV correspondents.
The No. 2 Senate Democrat scoffed at the idea that the news was being driven by Democrats who, like Bennet, have questioned Biden’s viability or, like Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, have called on Biden to give up on reelection.
“You guys, I’m asking you,” he told correspondents and other reporters after the Judiciary Committee hearing. “The fact is, this is front page news, and has been for the last 10 or 12 days.
“The reality is, many Americans don’t understand why we’re shifting our focus away from this issue and away from the issues that matter to their families,” Durbin said.
“At the end of the day, he’s going to be the nominee. He’ll be the nominee in Chicago and we’ll be campaigning aggressively to win reelection,” he insisted, adding that he doesn’t think the party will change its candidate.
Durbin argued the media was overstating the story by focusing on the relatively small number of senators in both chambers who have called for Biden to drop out of the race: just one of 51 Senate Democrats and 19 of the 213-member House Democratic caucus.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a master of messaging, has sought to blunt reports of intraparty divisions over Biden’s future.
Whenever Schumer has been asked about Biden’s issues, he has always repeated the same dry refrain: “As I’ve said before, I’m with Joe.”
That strategy has been undermined by fellow Democrats, particularly former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who suggested last week on NBC’s “Morning Joe” that Biden might still opt out of running. She urged her colleagues to hold off on calling for Biden to drop out of the race until after the NATO summit in Washington.
