Biden on the ropes in fight for political life

President Joe Biden is doing damage control with Democratic power players following the first 2024 presidential debate, but he is quickly running out of time to tamp down the momentum to replace him atop the Democratic ticket.

Biden returned to Washington, D.C., on Monday night following campaign stops in North Carolina and New York and a weekend stay at Camp David. Throughout his days away, a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers reacted to his debate performance by calling on him to bow out of the race and turn the nomination over to Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), or one of a host of other younger Democratic politicians.

Democratic strategists who previously voiced concerns about Biden’s age to the Washington Examiner said Wednesday that part of the problem in replacing the president lies in the relative unpopularity of his potential successors.

A CNN poll published Tuesday found that only Harris is polling better than Biden in a head-to-head matchup with Donald Trump, but even she trails the former president overall.

“President Biden still gives us the best shot at preventing another Donald Trump presidency,” one veteran Democratic operative told the Washington Examiner. “What we’re seeing is a massive error Thursday night compounded by his team attempting to isolate him in the past from scrutiny of his age and health. It’s now up to the president to convince donors and voters that he can not only finish the fight but do so better than anyone waiting in the wings.”

“There’s just over four months until the election, and even less time until the convention in August,” a second Democratic strategist added. “Even if Biden were to withdraw, there’s no guarantee that Harris or whoever his replacement turns out to be has enough time to effectively campaign and swing back undecideds and independents or whoever away from Trump.”

This is not the first time controversy has dogged Biden in a national election. Accusations of plagiarism and academic fraud forced him to bow out of the 1988 Democratic presidential primary in September 1987.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre chalked up Biden’s debate blunders to a mild cold.

She said it is not unusual for incumbent presidents to perform poorly at the first debates of a cycle, citing former President Barack Obama in 2012, and claimed that the president simply had a “bad night” that should not end his candidacy.

However, she also told reporters that the president would spend the bulk of the July 4 holiday weekend seeking to reverse course, including meetings with top Democratic governors and lawmakers, a sit-down interview with ABC, and campaign stops in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all on top of a formal press conference next week at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C.

Biden’s outreach to Democratic lawmakers began Tuesday, with calls to both House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE). The president spoke with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday morning, according to Schumer’s office, and reportedly spoke with Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who effectively secured the Democratic nomination for Biden in 2020 and is serving as chairman of his 2024 campaign.

Clyburn recently said he still backs the president but would throw his full support behind Harris if Biden were to withdraw from the race.

Later Wednesday evening, Biden will host a hybrid in-person and digital meeting with Democratic governors from across the country. Both Newsom and Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) are expected among the group of in-person attendees.

Still, the president faces a severe, uphill battle in assuaging the concerns of Democratic donors and voters, something the New York Times reported Wednesday that the president has privately confided in allies since the debate.

The White House forcefully denied the New York Times report.

“That claim is absolutely false,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates wrote on X. “If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so.”

Biden’s team is also working overtime to curb any doubts about the president within its own ranks.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients held an all-staff call Wednesday to outline the importance of “executing on our mission.”

Shortly after the call concluded, Zients’s core, three-point message immediately leaked to the press.

First, Zients asked officials to tune out the “noise” regarding the president’s performance Thursday night and keep performing their duties on behalf of the public. Second, he told staff members to take pride in what Biden has accomplished thus far in office. Finally, he stressed the need for the team to stay united in the coming months.

The White House did not comment on the contents of the call.

Meanwhile, the campaign distributed an all-staff memo Wednesday morning detailing internal polling that shows Biden slipping following last Thursday’s debate, but still technically competitive against Trump.

The memo, obtained by the Washington Examiner, also predicts new polling from the New York Times and Siena College that showed Trump opening an even wider gap on Biden.

“We are going to see a few polls come out today and we want you all to hear from us on what we know internally and what we expect to come externally,” campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez write. “Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate — it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race.”

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As for Harris, the vice president has spent the days following the debate continuing her previously scheduled campaign travel, including stops in Nevada, Utah, and California.

White House officials could not say Tuesday if Biden and Harris had spoken since the debate Thursday night, but the two leaders were scheduled to have a private lunch Wednesday at the White House.

Naomi Lim contributed to this report