WASHINGTON — In recent conversations with aides, family and allies outside the White House, President Joe Biden has wavered between acceptance and defiance in the face of a seismic shift in his political stance within his own party, according to four people familiar with the matter. . .
In some discussions, Biden has acknowledged that the setback caused by his debate performance last week may be too big to overcome, while in others he has outright rejected any notion that he might abandon his re-election campaign, these people said.
Some members of the president’s family — especially first lady Jill Biden and her son Hunter Biden — are urging him to make changes to his team and are increasingly airing their views on his campaign strategy in an attempt to resurrect his campaign. campaign failed, three people familiar with the matter said.
The president’s sister, Valerie Owens, will travel to Washington, D.C. on Thursday to join other family members at the White House for the Fourth of July holiday, but will also have in-person meetings about her brother’s campaign, according to a person. familiar with her plans.
Members of the Biden family have privately pointed fingers at some of the president’s longtime aides over their disastrous debate. They discussed whether the president should fire senior White House adviser Anita Dunn, for example, and possibly even her husband, Bob Bauer, who serves as Biden’s personal lawyer, two people familiar with the matter said.
Dunn and Bauer, who are married, were early supporters of Biden’s 2020 campaign after showing support for his candidacy in 2016, which he ultimately declined. They were among more than a dozen Biden aides who were involved in the president’s prep days for last week’s debate, with Dunn in the role of moderator and Bauer in the role of former President Donald Trump in mock debate sessions. . For more than a year, both have drawn the ire of Biden family members for their views that Hunter Biden should keep a low profile in addressing his legal troubles.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients denied there had been discussions about removing Dunn or Bauer.
“The president and first lady have complete confidence in their team, including Anita and Bob,” Zients said in a statement. “There is absolutely no truth to these baseless and insulting rumors.”
A senior Democrat added: “The family is scared. These advisors are incredibly loyal and do their jobs. This is unfounded.”
A Biden aide said the president told aides he doesn’t blame the team that prepared him for the debate for his performance.
Members of the president’s family are among the loudest voices rejecting any suggestion that he drop out of the race, according to people familiar with the private discussions. Biden is also not inclined to withdraw, which he has highlighted in public appearances. But he is weighing his own instincts to stay and fight — and his family’s reinforcement of those instincts — against growing calls for him to step aside and data showing the damage his debate performance has done to his prospects. of re-election.
“He can see that there is potentially no real path,” said one of these people. “But he’s being pushed.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement: “President Biden has been consistent: He remains in the race.”
The president began interacting with Democratic Party leaders in recent days as calls grew for him to step aside and anxiety grew among Biden’s allies.
Former President Barack Obama’s advice during a phone call this week, however, did not sit well with Biden, who still harbors resentment toward his former boss for advising him not to run for the White House in 2016.
Obama privately questioned the notion that he could influence Biden on such a personal decision if party leaders determined that the president needed to be convinced to exit the race, according to two people familiar with his comments.
“President Biden appreciates President Obama’s advice and support for his leadership,” White House spokesman Bates said in a statement.
When asked about comments, an Obama spokesperson pointed to his recent public comments expressing support for Biden and noting that he also had a bad debate when he ran for re-election in 2012.
Biden initially felt energized to pursue his campaign the day after the debate, buoyed by a Friday afternoon rally in North Carolina where he received an enthusiastic reception from the crowd, according to two people familiar with the matter. As the weekend wore on, though, the gravity of what happened on the debate stage in front of the country sunk in to Biden, this person said.
His mood changed. He was deeply hurt and embarrassed by a disastrous debate performance that the entire world saw, NBC News reported.
The question he faced went beyond just whether he could survive the external political pressure to step aside, to whether he could reach a point within himself where he could overcome the humiliation of the debate to have the confidence to return to the ring and to play. punches in a hard-hitting, bare-knuckle campaign.
“Throughout his life, when Joe Biden was knocked down, he got back up,” Bates, the White House spokesman, said in a statement.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who hosted Biden at a fundraiser Tuesday, said the president did not appear to be a deterred candidate.
“He looked strong. He didn’t seem meek or intimidated. He didn’t look like a broken man. He didn’t look like someone in crisis,” Beyer said. “Just really confident and like, ‘I’m going to win this thing.’”
NBC News reported that Hunter Biden strongly wants his father to stay in this race. And Jill Biden insisted that her husband would not give up.
Meeting with members of the Biden family at Camp David last weekend, she pointed out everything they’ve endured since Joe Biden decided to run for the White House — including attacks on Hunter Biden and criminal investigations into his son that have publicly exposed some of the darkest and gloomy family. most painful moments — to make clear that now was the time to fight, said two people familiar with the conversations. Our son could go to prison for this, she said, referring to Hunter Biden’s recent gun conviction.
As Jill Biden campaigned for her husband on Tuesday in Pennsylvania with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-Calif.) said the president’s debate performance didn’t show. Barragan told NBC News that the first lady was “upbeat, always smiling and engaged with us.”
“I couldn’t see anything that could tell me something was happening and something else was happening,” she said.
Immediately after the debate, Biden’s family members sought to find out what happened during debate preparations with senior staff at Camp David, according to people familiar with the discussions. They wanted to know who was responsible for apparently filling the president with numbers and statistics rather than training him to speak from the heart, these people said.
They specifically questioned the decision to have Bauer play Trump in mock debate sessions when there were outside suggestions that someone else take on the role, which the president’s top aides rejected. A person close to Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff who led debate preparations, said Klain asked Bauer to play Trump as he did during the 2020 mock debate sessions.
Now, family conversations center on how to rebuild Biden’s standing and continue his campaign, as the president’s closest aides lead a broad outreach effort to keep top Democrats from breaking with him.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
