NEW YORK — A sense of concern is growing within the upper echelons of the Democratic Party that leaders of Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not taking seriously enough the impact of the President’s worrying performance in the debate at the beginning of the week.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison held a conference call Saturday afternoon with dozens of committee members across the country, a group of some of the party’s most influential members. He didn’t recognize Biden’s poor performance on Thursday night or the avalanche of criticism that followed.
Several committee members present on the call, who were granted anonymity to speak about the private discussion, described feeling like they were being shortchanged — that they were being asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s predicament. The appeal, they said, may have worsened a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors and other stakeholders.
Instead, the people said, Harrison offered what they described as an optimistic assessment of Biden’s path forward. The chat function was disabled and no questions were allowed.
Many donors, party strategists and rank-and-file DNC members are saying publicly and privately that they want the 81-year-old Biden to step aside to allow the party to select a younger replacement at the Democratic National Convention in August. For now, however, Biden’s closest allies insist he remains well positioned to compete against Republican Donald Trump and they have given no indication that they will pressure him to end his campaign.
Those best positioned to replace him — Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer among them — reiterated their support for Biden after the debate.
Many are eagerly awaiting the first major round of post-debate public polls to determine next steps.
CNN and 538/Ipsos polls conducted shortly after the debate revealed that most debate watchers thought Trump outperformed Biden. But the two men’s favorability ratings remained practically unchanged, as was the case in the consequences of Trump’s conviction on charges in New York that he illegally participated in a secret money scheme to influence the 2016 election.
In a subsequent appearance on MSNBC, Harrison downplayed the importance of the conference call, which he said was part of a regularly scheduled communication “to talk about the state of the race” and the upcoming national convention with the DNC’s many elected members across the country. .
Biden and his campaign have sought to project confidence in the days since Thursday’s debate, in which the president, who already faced serious concerns about his physical and mental stamina, delivered a performance punctuated by repeated stumbles, uncomfortable pauses and a style of speak calmly which was often difficult to understand.
Shortly after Saturday’s DNC conference call, the Biden campaign released a memo from senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon insisting that the debate had no tangible impact on the election.
“By every metric that matters, the data shows that this has done nothing to change the perception of the American people, our supporters are more enthusiastic than ever, and Donald Trump just reminded voters why they fired him four years ago and they failed to expand their appeal beyond their power. MAGA base,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.
She added: “If we see changes in the polls in the coming weeks, it will not be the first time that exaggerated media narratives have caused temporary dips in the polls.”
Meanwhile, Biden spent much of Saturday courting wealthy donors in New York’s famously wealthy enclave of the Hamptons.
“I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump,” Biden said of the debate at a gathering in East Hampton.
Of Trump, Biden said: “The big takeaway was his lies.”
Meanwhile, Trump boasted about Biden’s performance at a rally on Friday and suggested on his social media platform on Saturday that Biden had faded “under tremendous pressure.”
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Josh Boak in East Hampton, New York, contributed to this report.
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