Biden campaign is in debate damage control: Assuring worried donors, voters after debacle
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden's reelection campaign engaged in full-on damage control Monday after the president's disastrous debate performance, seeking to assure top donors Biden can still win the election, rejecting calls that he bow out and trying to convince voters that he's up for another term.
Jen O'Malley Dillion, chair of the Biden campaign, held an hourlong conference call with more than 500 Biden donors Monday evening after a call with a smaller number of 40 top financial backers on Sunday turned tense amid concerns about Biden's debate struggles.
The campaign released a new television ad featuring footage of Biden's speech from a post-debate rally Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina in which Biden acknowledges, "I know I’m not a young man," but accuses former President Donald Trump of lying throughout the debate. "Like millions of Americans, I know when you get knocked down, you get back up," Biden is shown saying in the ad.
Meanwhile, Biden remained at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, where he was with family over the weekend, before returning to the White House Monday night. Biden's family members urged him to stay in the race amid calls for him to bow out, the New York Times reported, citing people close to the situation.
His next moves will be watched closely, with panic at a fever pitch. Democrats have an Aug. 7 deadline to hold their virtual nomination, in order for Biden to make the general election ballot in Ohio.
Biden told donors at a fundraiser in Red Bank, New Jersey on Saturday he understood the concerns about his performance and would not be running again if he wasn't fully committed. "I get it. I didn’t have a great night," he said. "But I’m going to be fighting harder."
Democratic Party insiders who spoke to USA TODAY said Biden needs to make the changes immediately. Town halls where he takes off-the cuff questions from voters, press conferences — any setting that doesn't involve a teleprompter.
"I don't want rallies, rah-rahs with people yelling and cheering and whatever," one Democratic National Committee member said. "No, just a conversation with the people."
Democrats were otherwise in holding pattern on Monday as they waited to hear from Biden.
A major donor who attended several Zoom calls with campaign staff and other donors spent the weekend waiting to hear what Biden might decide after meeting with his family at Camp David.
“The best solution I keep hearing would be for him to step aside, but I think that is doubtful,” the donor said.
The person described the feelings of other donors as mixed. “Many are getting behind Biden, others are not so sure,” the donor said.
Francesca Hagadus, a political organizer from Pleasantville, New York, said she didn’t want it to appear as if Biden had been “fired.”
“It needs to sound like his idea,” she said, of the prospect of Biden stepping aside.
A former Obama administration official said they were in “wait-and-see” mode, adding the next few weeks will be crucial, when new polls numbers start trickling in.
Damage has been done, according to a new post-debate USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Monday. The survey found 41% of Democratic voters, including 37% of Americans who plan to vote for Biden, believe the party should replace Biden as their presidential nominee.
More: Joe Biden's core Democratic support takes big hit after debate, exclusive poll shows
Could Democrats have an open convention?
Biden's showing during last Thursday's debate in Atlanta − in which the president struggled to complete thoughts and string together coherent sentences − has left Biden's allies swatting down the idea of an open DNC Convention in August to choose a different nominee.
For that to happen, Biden would have to choose to step aside and release his bound delegates. And while the DNC rules do lay out a process for filling a vacancy on the national ticket, that's not a scenario that committee members who'd have to manage the process want to find themselves in engaged in.
"I think that sets a dangerous precedent. That really does set us up as being the elitists who go and select against the will of the people," the DNC member said.
In the Democratic presidential primary, Democrats voted for Biden delegates, the member noted.
"We're just going to disregard the thousands of people that went out and voted and said they wanted us to be Joe Biden delegates, and, oh, we're just going to make our own decision? And what is that decision going to be based on? How do we even decide who that person is going to be in 130 days or whatever?" the member said. "That's a ridiculous notion."
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison addressed party members during a Saturday call.
One DNC member who was present said the message from party officials was, essentially, "that everybody needs to take a deep breath" and not rush to judgement.
"He's going to be in the race," the DNC member said. "He's raised a boatload of money. If you think about anybody else, like who would be that other person?"
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whiter, among a long list of Democrats speculated as possible replacement candidates, relayed to the Biden campaign Friday that she disavows any effort to force Biden out and be drafted to run in his place, according to a report from Politico.
"Anyone who claims I would say that we can’t win Michigan is full of s---. Let’s go," Whitmer said in a social media post Monday, disputing another part of Politico's account.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, another Democrat whose name has also been floated, called the attention "flattering" but said he supports Biden as long as he's running.
"The debate performance was rough. It was a very bad night for the president. But he is still the candidate," Beshear told reporters. "Only he can make decisions about his future candidacy. So as long as he continues to be in the race, I support him.”
The day after Thursday's debate, O'Malley Dillon and Biden campaign manager Chavez Rodriguez held a breakfast meeting with top donors in Atlanta in which they downplayed the impact of Biden's poor debate performance.
Chip Forrester, who attended the meeting, said O'Malley highlighted results from a focus group of undecided independent voters during the debate who responded more positively to Biden than Trump, emphasized Biden's strong fundraising on the day of the debate and since, and argued the fundraising operation and campaign infrastructure could not be easily transferred to a new nominee.
"We all left the debate Thursday night with the wind out of our sails. We had thought he would do better," Forrester, co-chair of the Biden-Harris Southern Finance Committee said. "I think we left the meeting − OK, we've had a bad night, but we're going to pick ourselves up and move forward."
O'Malley Dillon, in a campaign memo released over the weekend, tried to spin anxieties about Biden's debate performance as an obsession of the D.C. media, not voters. "It’s a familiar story: Following Thursday night’s debate, the beltway class is counting Joe Biden out. The data in the battleground states, though, tells a different story," she wrote.
But Betty Cotton of New York, who has donated thousands to Biden’s reelection campaign and serves as a regional finance committee member, told USA TODAY it was hard to watch.
“It was a disaster last night," she said last week.
The campaign's conference call Sunday with donors revealed deep concerns, NBC News reported. One participant, the television network reported, said a lot of financial supporters on the call were "frightened" and didn't appreciate being delivered "campaign talking points." Some asked for their contributions to be returned.
Amid the unrest, the campaign held a conference call with reporters to slam the Supreme Court's decision granting Trump partial immunity from criminal prosecution − a decision that could have major ramifications on the federal criminal case against Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the capitol.
Quentin Fulks, deputy Biden campaign manager, pushed back when a reporter asked whether Biden, not just surrogates and campaign officials, would be addressing the court's decision as a way to quell concerns about his abilities following the debate.
Fulks said Americans "should be scared" of what Trump might do in a second presidency, given the court's decision, and the media shouldn't "lose sight" of that.
"We're on this call right now talking about the fact that the Supreme Court just honestly created a new precedent and set a pathway for somebody who is desperate to stay in power," Fulks said.
"My answer is not a deflection around the president's performance of the debate. My answer is a reality check."
By Monday evening, the White House announced Biden would be addressing the Supreme Court's decision in remarks later that night at the White House.
Joey Garrison, Francesca Chambers and Swapna Venugopal cover the White House for USA TODAY. Reach them on X as @joeygarrison @Fran_Chambers and @Swapna Venugopal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden campaign in damage control after disastrous debate performance
