Members of Joe BidenTrump’s family privately ripped apart his top campaign advisers at Camp David this weekend, blaming them for the president’s failure in Thursday’s debate and urging Biden to fire or demote people in his top political command.
There is no immediate expectation that Biden will follow that advice, according to three people briefed on the family conversations but not directly involved. The three people were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.
Among the family’s complaints about debate practice: that Biden was not prepared to pivot more to go on the attack; that he was too bogged down in defending his record rather than outlining a vision for a second term; and that he was overworked and not rested.
Blame was widely blamed on officials, including: Anita Dunn, the senior adviser who often has the president’s ear; her husband, Bob Bauer, the president’s lawyer who played Trump in rehearsals at Camp David; It is Ron Klainthe former chief of staff who guided the preparation of the debate and the sessions in previous cycles.
“The advisors who prepared the president have been with him for years, often decades, accompanying him through victories and challenges. He maintains strong confidence in them,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.
A senior Biden aide also fired back, saying it was “not true” that the frustration was directed at Dunn, Bauer and Klain.
Biden allies and officials have attempted to blame a variety of factors for the fallout from Biden’s dismal debate performance, including the fact that the president was ill, was overprepared, and that CNN moderators failed to fact-check former President Donald Trump. But as the crisis continued into a third day, accusations turned inward among some of Biden’s closest advisers.
The focus on the team, however, also allowed the family to ignore Biden’s own failings in Atlanta, a person familiar noted.
These people said the Biden family wanted the president to continue campaigning rather than end his career with a calamitous debate performance against Trump, whom everyone detests. First lady Jill Biden and your son Biden Hunter were the loudest voices asking the president to remain in the 2024 race.
The Biden family also hoped to meet to discuss how best to reassure Democrats that staying in the race is the right decision. The president himself was calling to find out what his confidants thought. When Biden boarded Air Force One on Saturday, he spoke on the phone with Jon Meacham, according to caller ID photos.
What’s more, Biden’s campaign team has only grown angrier with CNN over the way the debate was handled, according to several people familiar with the conversations. Their complaints were extensive, including that moderators should have fact-checked Trump more often, that Biden was not told which camera he would be on when he wasn’t speaking, and that the makeup team made him look too pale, according to reports. three people. Biden, however, agreed to the terms of the debate before it took place.
Since the debate, Biden’s family has supported him publicly and privately. Granddaughters Finnegan and Natalie Biden traveled with the president and first lady for a list of fundraising events on Saturday in New York and New Jersey. Although the family had long planned to spend this weekend together at Camp David to take a family portrait with photographer Annie Leibovitz, the reunion offered an opportunity for them to sit together in the days following what appears to be a low point in the world. the president’s decades-long political career.
Before Biden even left the debate stage on Thursday night, he was already facing heavy criticism from members of his own party over his struggling performance, with some suggesting that he could not adequately compete against Trump and that his performance exposed long-standing concerns that he is too old to campaign and lead the nation. His hoarse voice, slurred answers and lackluster stage presence during the 90-minute debate sparked panic among top Democratic donors and strategists about the viability of his candidacy and opened a debate over whether he should be replaced at the top of the ticket.
He fared better in the following days, with stronger performances at rallies and fundraisers – but this, unlike the debate, allowed him to use teleprompters.
Biden acknowledged that the debate did not go well. On a campaign rally on Friday, he said “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” but emphasized that “I wouldn’t be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul that I can do this job.”
Since launching his re-election campaign, Biden has struggled to assuage concerns about his age. Polls have consistently shown that many voters – including his own supporters – think he is too old to effectively serve a second term. Although Trump is only three years younger, voters are much less likely to cite the former president’s age as an issue.
Biden’s debate performance will likely make the age issue an even bigger hurdle in the coming months. A CBS News/YouGov Poll published Sunday showed that 72 percent of registered voters do not believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, up from 65 percent earlier this month. His party is divided over whether or not he should run for president, with 46 percent of registered Democratic voters saying he should not do so, compared to 54 percent who say he should.
Biden often consults his family on big decisions, and those close to him say the only way he could come to the conclusion to drop out of the race is if the first lady and members of his family encouraged him to do so.
At a fundraiser in Greenwich Village on Friday night, the first lady said that after the debate, the president came up to her and said, “Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel so good.”
“And I said, ‘Look, Joe, we’re not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president,’” the first lady said, according to reporters present.
