The Biden campaign has been working tirelessly to alleviate widespread panic following President’s disastrous debate performance, with party bigwigs even setting up a call for members to help them cope with the fallout. On Saturday, while Biden networked with high-level donors in the Hamptons, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) organized an impromptu conference call led by Julie Chávez Rodriguez, Biden campaign manager, and DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison to allay concerns and address frustrations.
They are trying to minimize the debate as much as possible,” a source told The Post. It was meant to indirectly dismiss any discussion.” Adding that it was “matter of fact, we are moving forward.” Invitations for the call were sent out on Friday following President Biden’s shaky debate performance, which saw him appearing frail and disoriented.
During the 45-minute call, there was only a passing mention of the debate, in the form of a quote from a rally Biden attended in North Carolina on Friday where he stated, “I don’t walk as easily as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.” A spokesperson for the DNC tried to downplay the significance of the call, stating it was just another quarterly meeting led by Chair Harrison that covered fundraising numbers and recapped the week’s events, including the debate where “corrupt President Biden outlined a positive vision to drive progress and Donald Trump lied through his teeth and refused to accept the results of the election.
However, as pundits and numerous news outlets, including The New York Times editorial board, call for President Biden to step down from the race, the party is standing firmly behind him. Sources said that the call was meant to emphasize moving the campaign forward, focusing on the energy within the Democratic establishment rather than dwelling on the debate performance.
But another source revealed that the hastily arranged call was an attempt to quell discontent about the debate. They will try and treat it routinely, but it was not routine,” says this source.
Biden’s lackluster debate performance on Thursday left the Democratic establishment reeling, with former New York state Senator Alessandra Biaggi of the Bronx and ex-Obama associate staff secretary Joel Wertheimer immediately taking to social media to urge President Biden to withdraw from the race. The octogenarian president repeatedly froze and made a series of gaffes throughout the 90-minute debate, including stating that his son Beau, who died from cancer in the US, “died in Iraq” and claiming he “beat Medicare.” He also spoke in a soft, scratchy voice, which anonymous aides attributed to a cold.
At the end of the debate, First Lady Jill Biden stepped in to help her husband off the stage, an action some viewers perceived as embarrassing for the sitting president. A survey conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research revealed that over half of debate watchers had no confidence in President Biden’s ability to lead the country compared to his opponent. Fifty-one percent of 500 registered voters polled said Trump performed better than Biden, with slightly more than half of voters saying Biden’s performance was worse than expected. Nearly three-quarters of voters said they left the debate “more concerned” about President Biden’s “age and fitness to be president.
