WASHINGTON — Four days after his disastrous debate performance, President Joe Biden has yet to personally call top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill to drum up support, five sources told NBC News, although White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has made calls.
Biden’s team is working to dispel doubts within the party about his ability to continue the race against former President Donald Trump. Still, frustration is growing with the president’s inner circle, which says it is too “insulated,” one Democratic lawmaker said, adding that Biden is not doing the kind of personal outreach they expect.
Biden did not personally reach out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, or other congressional leaders after his faltering debate — a decision that stunned some lawmakers.
“It’s troubling,” one House Democrat said, adding that White House staff should be transparent — at least in private calls with lawmakers — about whether Biden’s struggles on the debate stage were a one-off or whether they’ve seen the problem before.
Schumer and Jeffries have not publicly expressed disappointment with the move. Schumer’s office declined to comment, while Jeffries’ office did not respond to questions.
The Biden campaign did not comment specifically on Schumer and Jeffries, but said Biden had spoken with some elected officials.
“The president has spoken personally with several elected officials on the Hill and in the battlegrounds since the debate,” campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said.
Senior White House officials have been in touch. Zients called Schumer and Jeffries after the debate, three sources said, and he has continued to exchange calls with Schumer to discuss “staying in sync on next steps,” one of the sources said. Steve Ricchetti, an adviser to the president, also called Congress.
While Democratic lawmakers all publicly support Biden, at least four of them told NBC News they privately believe he should step down now — four months before Election Day — to avoid a lopsided Democratic defeat.
“It’s a very difficult decision. But because he’s going to continue to decline, and because if he continues to be our nominee we risk a catastrophic event after the convention that would prevent him from continuing to be a candidate, he should step aside and allow a nomination process at the convention in August,” said one Democratic lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
Asked whether Biden should gracefully step down now, a moderate House Democrat said “yes,” adding that he would still like to see whether Biden’s approval would drop precipitously in new polls after the debate.
Another Democratic lawmaker said his colleagues would decide what to say publicly about Biden once they see the debate’s impact on polls in swing House districts. Democrats need to flip a handful of seats to flip the House to Democratic control, while they face a tough map to hold on to the Senate.
“This has to be the firewall” against a possible Trump presidency, the lawmaker said.
Another House Democrat, a vulnerable moderate facing a tough reelection bid this fall, said they were still processing what happened last week and had not yet called on Biden to drop out of the race. But this lawmaker expressed anger and pointed the finger at the people around Biden 81, for letting him on stage during the debate.
“I hold his family and his advisers directly responsible for this mess,” the vulnerable MP said in an interview. “They are the closest to him and they should have gotten him out before this happened.”
The person added: “I just hope someone above my level can figure this out.”
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., chairwoman of the moderate New Democrats coalition, also reiterated her frustration with the Biden team’s handling of the debate and said Democrats need more information to assess “what happened” as they defend their seats.
“Of course, we saw what we saw. We saw what 50 million Americans saw, and we were concerned for the president’s well-being. We were disappointed and concerned for him. … Many of us were upset with his team of advisers who put him in this situation,” Kuster said in an interview Monday.
“I think we need to have a clear picture of what happened, both in the lead-up to the debate and during the debate. Obviously he’s been much more energetic since then at the rallies,” Kuster said. “We’re all very concerned about him. I hope he’s doing well. So the first step is to assess the impact of these tough races.”
Biden’s campaign team, political allies and top House Democratic leaders called Biden’s debate performance a “bad night” and said he should be judged on his long list of legislative accomplishments and whether the alternative, Trump, is dangerous to the country. An energetic Biden acknowledged at a campaign rally Friday, “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” but said he still expects to win in November.
Many of Biden’s allies and family members have spent the past few days mobilizing, and some campaign aides and donors have argued that trying to nominate a replacement so late in the game could create an even worse scenario for the party.
“This magical thinking about the delegate selection process is like saying people are on mushrooms,” said Orin Kramer, a Biden fundraiser and veteran of Jimmy Carter’s White House. “They need to get off drugs and focus on the future of civilization. He’s been a great president.”
In an appearance on MSNBC over the weekend, Jeffries called Biden’s debate a “disappointing performance” and said House Democrats would have conversations by phone and virtually over the July 4 holiday about the way forward. But he said he supported Biden, whom he described as a “good man, an honorable man,” running against a “crook.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who is a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board, told NBC News on Monday: “I support the president’s decision to stay and fight — the American people respect those who demonstrate resilience and courage.”
But one Democratic lawmaker who has been in contact with members facing competitive elections this fall described them as “scared.”
“The ones who are in the worst situation are the early voters in the swing states, who already felt like they had to carry the president … and now they’re in a tough spot of trying to get out and campaign. (…) It’s hard not to panic,” the lawmaker said. “It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of anxiety.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, a Biden ally who led the impeachment team after Trump was implicated in the Jan. 6 attack, acknowledged Sunday that “honest and serious conversations are happening” within the Democratic Party about Biden’s political future.
Two Democratic officials in Washington said that to recover, Biden would have to go out more in unscripted situations to prove that the debate was simply a bad night: going on television, doing interviews or town hall meetings, holding news conferences.
It’s the “only way to fix it,” one Democrat said. “We have to get him out.” The other said Monday that it was “damning” that four days after the debate, Biden still hasn’t held an event where he will speak without a teleprompter.
News Source : www.nbcnews.com
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