No One Is Buying the Biden Campaign’s Spin
At 7:45 p.m. Monday evening, hours after the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority greenlit Donald Trump’s disturbing immunity scheme, President Joe Biden finally showed up to weigh in on a “dangerous precedent” he said “undermines the rule and law of this nation.”
His performance was not as viscerally bad as what Americans saw at the first 2024 presidential debate last week, but the scene was grim in its own right. Biden spoke for four minutes, offered no solutions, and promptly walked offstage. The president did not answer any questions from reporters, including about whether he would drop out of the race, or why he is confident he should still be president.
A half-hour later, the Biden campaign sent an email to reporters pointing out that “Trump suddenly canceled an interview in Virginia the day after last week’s debate,” accusing him of “running away” from questions — and presenting several topics Team Biden would like to see Trump discuss.
Yes, campaigns are always going to offer spin and attempt to redirect negative coverage toward the arguments they want to see in the world — but this message was delivered to reporters minutes after Biden once again, on television, shuffled away from the microphone instead of answering questions about the topic currently defining his presidency: his fitness for office.
Suffice to say, reporters did not race to broadcast this new narrative from the Biden campaign.
Since the debate last week, where Biden looked feeble and failed to complete his thoughts several times, he and his campaign have appeared unable, or unwilling, to acknowledge the peril they are facing — or the gravity of the situation the candidate and his staff are foisting on the American public. Team Biden has instead presented a public face of defiance — and outright denial.
In recent days, the Biden campaign has attempted to dismiss concerns about the candidate’s age and health as “bedwetting,” and slammed some of its usual liberal media allies as “self-important podcasters” for publicly voicing concerns shared by most Americans, according to a recent poll.
Outside the insulated walls of family, advisors, and senior campaign staff around Biden, a rebellion is brewing. Donors, lawmakers, and those pesky “self-important” commentators are resisting the campaign’s barely disguised demand that everyone simply shut up and move on.
On Monday, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) criticized the campaign’s response to the post-debate crisis of confidence in an interview with Semafor. “The campaign has raised the concerns themselves,” he said. “So then to be dismissive of others who raise those concerns, I think it’s inappropriate.”
“Passivity is not the response that is going to work for us. We all have to be self conscious,” Welch added. “We all have to be acutely aware that our obligation is to the country, even more than the party. That’s the obligation we have — what’s best for the country.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told a local CBS affiliate he was “horrified” by the debate, adding: “I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign that’s ready to go and win, that the president and his team are being candid with us about his condition — that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days.”
Others are being far less gentle. “They lied to us — systematically, over years,” one Democratic megadonor told Puck News. “Given the stakes, it’s unforgivable. Unconscionable.”
Another donor told Puck that in their view, conversations and external pressure would not be enough to convince Biden he needs to exit the race. “Just telling him that we want him to leave won’t do it,” they said. “So we need real numbers to come in that allow everyone to hide behind them. ‘Mr. President, these numbers are tough to get past.’ Then no one has to own the brutal truth, which is he’s not up to this. No one wants to say that.”
As Rolling Stone has reported, those numbers may already be in the hands of the president’s team. The Biden campaign emailed a series of poll results to journalists and supporters over the weekend to point out that the race did not change as a result of Biden’s poor debate. While the surveys showed a close race, they also found that voters believe Biden is not fit to be president, is too old, and should be replaced as the Democratic nominee.
One of the polls, from Data for Progress, noted that voters “are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s criminal charges” — demonstrating why it won’t be easy for Democrats to change the conversation or push their own preferred narrative.
These concerns did not manifest spontaneously between Thursday night and Friday morning — they have steadily found purchase within an American public increasingly aware that the sitting president rarely does interviews, avoids answering questions at all costs, and fumbles when forced to go off script. While presenting a public face of denial, campaign and administration officials now face questions about how much they knew, and why they chose to plow forward anyway.
“The number of people who have access to the president has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. They’ve been digging deeper into the bunker for months now,” one strategist told Politico. “The more you get into the bunker, the less you listen to anyone.”
Publicly, the campaign does not appear to be taking the concerns or criticism seriously.
On a donor call Monday, Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon reportedly told participants that Biden is “probably in better health than most of us,” according to CNN.
“Everyone just needs to breathe through the nose for a minute,” Democratic National Committee finance chair Chris Korge told donors on the same call.
Questions about Biden’s age and fitness will likely drive the 2024 race until he either leaves the ticket — which does not appear imminent — or disproves his doubters, which does not appear possible.
In the meantime, spinning won’t be easy.
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