President Joe Biden’s family used Sunday’s gathering at Camp David to urge him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite a poor debate performance that saw some members criticize his staff for him, according to four people familiar with the matter. preparations for the confrontation.
Biden spent the day in isolation with first lady Jill Biden and his children and grandchildren. This was a previously planned trip to the presidential resort in Maryland for a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
But the rally was also an attempt to figure out how to calm the Democratic anxiety that erupted after Thursday’s performance.
While his family knows how poorly he performed against Donald Trump, they still believe he is the best candidate to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee. They also believe he is capable of serving another four years, according to people who were not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The most outspoken among them are Jill Biden and son Hunter, whom the president has long turned to for advice and advice. Both believe the president should not quit when he is down and believe he can bounce back from what they consider a poor performance. The family questioned his preparation for the staff debate and wondered if they could have done better, people familiar with the matter said.
In the days since the debate, Biden’s campaign has struggled to keep donors and surrogates engaged as Democrats increasingly question whether he should remain in the race. Also gave puzzling answers.
At this point in the delegates process, Biden may have to decide to withdraw so that a new nominee can emerge. The people he obeyed the most in the world—his wife and son—told him to stay home.
The 81-year-old Democratic president’s advanced age has become a burden for voters even before the debate, with the prime-time standoff appearing to heighten deep-seated public concerns in what could be his biggest audience in the four months leading up to the election. day. CNN said more than 51 million people watched the debate.
As the president huddled with his family, prominent Democrats rallied on Sunday to publicly express their support for his campaign.
“I don’t think there’s a problem with Joe Biden’s leadership over the next four years,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina, a close ally. “Joe Biden should continue to run on his record.”
Raphael Warnock, the Democratic senator from Georgia and a Baptist pastor, said there were “several Sundays where I wished I had preached a better sermon,” linking the experience to Biden’s debate performance .
“But after the sermon is over, my job is to embody the message and show up for the people I serve. That’s what Joe Biden has been doing his whole life,” Warnock said. That echoes the message from other supporters that Biden was terrible at the debates but has been good throughout his life.
Warnock, like Clyburn and others, focused on Trump’s many falsehoods during the debate — and Biden and debate moderators’ frequent lapses in failing to fact-check onstage — including about the Jan. 6, 2021 Trump supporters attack the Capitol, immigration issues and more.
“As long as his mouth is moving, he’s lying,” Warnock said of Trump.
But some Democrats worry that Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not paying enough attention to the debate’s impact.
Former Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who served with Biden in the Senate for more than two decades, called the debate “a disaster from which Biden will never recover.”
According to an obtained email to supporters, Harkin suggested that Democratic senators in key races and “perhaps all current Democratic senators should write a letter to Biden asking him to release his representatives and allow position so that the General Assembly can choose a new candidate.” Associated Press. Iowa State reporter Julie Gammack first mentioned this in her Saturday column, “Iowa Dinner.”
Harkin concluded: “This is a dangerous moment that is more important than Joe Biden’s ego or desire to remain president.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., described “very honest, serious and rigorous conversations happening at every level of our party … about what to do.”
But Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez spoke Saturday afternoon with dozens of committee members from across the country, a group made up of some of the party’s most influential A conference call was held with members of the Force, who offered an optimistic assessment of the path and did not give others on the call a chance to answer questions.
Several committee members who participated in the call, most speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions, said they felt they were being asked to ignore a serious dilemma.
“A lot could be said in addressing this issue. But we’re not getting that. We’re being gaslighted,” said Joe Salazar, an elected member of the Democratic National Committee in Colorado who participated in the call.
