Five ways Biden blew it all over again after the debate

Democrats stared into the abyss after President Joe Biden fumbled away the first debate and within 72 hours had mostly talked themselves into the idea that it wasn’t worth throwing their convention into chaos over one bad night.

But Biden continued making mistakes that convinced even those who wanted to believe that there was a more systemic problem with the president and his campaign.

It’s a family affair 

First lady Jill Biden may have come on too strong when she tried to rehab her husband’s debate performance. “Joe, you did such a great job!” she told him at a rally afterward, sounding like the teacher she is by profession. “You answered every question, you knew all the facts!”

But the Vogue cover spread featuring the first lady struck some Democrats as ill-timed. While preplanned, with the only reference to the debate inserted into an editor’s note, it reinforced the impression there was insufficient introspection after an embarrassing loss to former President Donald Trump that itself reinforced every concern about the 81-year-old incumbent’s age and acuity. 

Then came reports that Hunter Biden was one of the strongest family advocates of his father remaining in the race. “A good rule of thumb, whatever Hunter Biden advises, do the opposite,” a Democratic lawmaker ranting about the “Praetorian Guard” surrounding the president told the news website NOTUS.

To make matters worse, the younger Biden, who was always a lightning rod and is now a convicted felon, began appearing this week at White House meetings. This did not inspire confidence in the president’s ability to course-correct, indicating flawed judgment and an even more insular approach. 

Shifting explanations

Biden’s camp initially said his hoarse voice and weak debate showing were because of a cold, though that was not said beforehand and the president glad-handed supporters at a Waffle House after the 90-minute event concluded. 

Then Biden allies suggested that perhaps aides overprepared Biden, even though it was later reported the preparation session began at 11 a.m. and left room in the president’s schedule for afternoon naps. It should be noted that Biden himself did not make such claims.

But Biden did tell the crowd at a private fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, that he was still getting over jet lag when he debated Trump. “I wasn’t very smart,” he said. “I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through I don’t know how many time zones — for real, I think it was 15 time zones. … I didn’t listen to my staff.” 

Except Biden had been back from his last foreign trip for 12 days by the time he took the stage in Atlanta. He spent half of that at Camp David.

Going silent

It took Biden days to communicate with key Democratic stakeholders after the debate, despite widespread dissatisfaction with his performance and anxiety about the general election. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) told CNN Tuesday night he had not heard from Biden. The story was much the same for many Democratic congressional leaders and governors, though the White House staff did some damage control on his behalf.

Biden did not keep to a particularly busy public schedule either. There was a well-received rally in North Carolina before his weekend getaway, a five-minute reaction to the Supreme Court’s Trump immunity decision, and a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House. All involved scripted remarks read from a teleprompter, and he did not take questions from reporters. 

By the end of Wednesday, Biden had spoken to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), top ally Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in addition to holding an evening meeting with Democratic governors. Those governors reaffirmed Biden was staying in the race, as the president and Vice President Kamala Harris did in a campaign call the same day.

Biden also taped interviews with two black radio stations and is scheduled to sit down with ABC News on Friday. Biden’s ABC interview will be with George Stephanopoulos, a longtime network anchor who was previously White House communications director under former President Bill Clinton and a Democratic operative. 

In the intervening days, Biden was panned for being slow to work the phones. The White House cited his busy schedule.

A second dam burst

Not only are Democratic members of Congress starting to call on Biden to end his reelection campaign, but fissures are appearing in his once tight-lipped inner circle. 

A White House all-staff call leaked to the press in real time. Details of Biden’s routine, including claims that he is most engaged between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., have been reported. There is public finger-pointing between people close to the Biden campaign. An “ally” told the New York Times that Biden wasn’t sure he could rescue his flagging bid for a second term.

Clyburn, the man most responsible for reviving Biden’s 2020 campaign with a critically timed endorsement in South Carolina, keeps signaling openness to Biden replacement scenarios in media interviews, though without ever committing to them. 

Neither Biden’s White House nor his campaign have been particularly leak-prone in the past, especially compared to Trump pre-2024.

Mixed signals

“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can and as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running,” Biden told campaign staffers in a conference call on Wednesday. “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. No one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end, and we’re going to win because when Democrats unite, we always win.”

Biden later repeated this language in a fundraising appeal. Democratic governors left the White House reaffirming that Biden was still in it to win it.

Hours before those governors spoke to the press, however, the Washington Post reported that Biden and senior advisers “accepted Wednesday the grim ultimatum” that they must quickly set things right — even “demonstrate his fitness for office” — or “face a significant effort to force him to step aside.”

It’s possible that Democrats who want Biden to exit are framing his and his team’s acceptance of political reality as waffling about his campaign. The New York Times story about Biden understanding the stakes was originally headlined that he was “weighing whether to continue in the race,” while most of the quotes therein reflected either self-doubt or a realization that time is of the essence. 

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Harris the Democrats’ “future” in Wednesday’s briefing, part of Biden’s 2020 promise to be a “bridge” candidate to a new generation of leaders. “One of the reasons why he picked the vice president, Kamala Harris, is because she is indeed the future of the party,” she told reporters. The first lady, by contrast, declared while introducing her husband at a fundraiser, “Joe isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job.”

More than 90% of the pledged delegates at the Democratic convention are formally committed to Biden. While they could abandon him, the DNC rules don’t anticipate the involuntary removal of the nominee and the delegates would need to move against him en masse. 

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In 2016, Trump beat back attempts to topple him at the GOP convention and then even closer to the election stared down party leaders panicking over the Access Hollywood tape in which he made lewd comments about women. Trump won in November, despite trailing Hillary Clinton by 4.5 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average this time eight years ago. Biden’s current deficit is 2.9 points.

The extent of the Democratic panic over Biden’s handling of the debate and its aftermath suggests deep-seated angst about his vitality, electability, and campaign strategy.