Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Biden’s wobbly conference, cash questions, and impeachment update

‘Big boy’ bobble

President Joe Biden had a better night than his head-to-head battle with former President Donald Trump when he gave his first news conference in eight months on the sidelines of the NATO summit. The highly anticipated “big boy” news conference was a hurdle he had to clear if he was going to put Democratic unrest about his leadership and ability to beat Trump in November to bed.

A slow start, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” and struggling through his stutter to make himself clear, wasn’t enough to bury him after he showed a firm grasp of foreign policy problems. The president struggled to make the case for why Democrats shouldn’t be concerned about his physical and mental fitness, falling back on common tropes he’s expressed for years and asserting that because he beat Trump in 2020, he is in the best position to do it again.

White House Reporter Naomi Lim peeled apart the many layers to the nearly hourlong press conference, which had been delayed several times and pushed up against what critics, and some allies of the president, joked would be near his bedtime.

“Although his strongest moments from the press conference were foreign policy-related, it is the questions that linger regarding his political strength domestically against former President Donald Trump before November’s election that had another House Democrat, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), immediately add his voice to the chorus of members of his own party calling on him to step down as their nominee at its conclusion. Himes was quickly followed by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Eric Sorensen (D-IL) urging Biden, 81, to end his campaign,” Naomi writes.

Democrats hoping to see proof Biden is up to the task of keeping the brutal 24/7 schedule demanded of a president didn’t have a single moment to hold on to as proof he can’t handle the rigor — but they went to bed on Thursday still looking for evidence that he can.

Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin told Naomi the press conference was “OK” but “certainly not great.”

Click here to get caught up on the president’s big night and keep an eye out for more takeaways.

Cash dash

Throughout most of the 2020 rematch, Biden has dominated Trump in the cash department. The net worths of the candidates might be disparate, but the value of their campaigns undoubtedly favored Biden.

The chasm in fundraising changed when Trump was convicted in his hush money case in New York. With more than $100 million raised over the course of a weekend, Trump eliminated any serious cash advantage Biden held. And now the funds are drying up for the president as he tries to convince donors as well as lawmakers to stand behind him, White House Reporter Christian Datoc writes.

“The fallout from President Joe Biden‘s disastrous debate performance surprisingly did not include a complete shutdown of incoming donations to Biden’s campaign,” he writes. “But after two weeks, and one particularly weighty op-ed later, that appears to be changing. Multiple senior Democratic operatives tell the Washington Examiner that outstanding questions about Biden’s election viability have paused efforts from some fundraisers to solicit new donations to support the president’s campaign spending.”

Last night’s press conference was on the minds of donors waffling on piling cash into a campaign they think could be forced to pack up in a couple of weeks, if not days.

Biden brushed off concerns about his fundraising numbers during the event and pointed to his current war chest as one of the best reasons for donors to stick with him. ”While other Democrats could beat former President Donald Trump in a general election, it would be ‘hard to start from scratch,’” Christian wrote.

Most of the concerns about the president’s fundraising ability came from Democratic mega-donors saying they were turning off the taps not just for Biden but for the entire party until there is a shake-up at the top of the ticket.

Abigail Disney, heiress to the Disney fortune, declared her checkbook’s independence from Democrats on July 5 with a terse rebuke for the party she’s spent lavishly on in the past.

“I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” she said at the time. “This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high.”

Future donations aren’t going to affect money already spent. Biden’s team and supporters have already reserved more than $140 million in ads, compared to the roughly $90 million spent by Trump’s camp.

Click here to catch up on all the cash questions Biden has to answer.

What ever happened to impeachment?

House Republicans intent on impeaching Biden haven’t stopped working toward their goal, even if they have been quieter than usual in their pressure campaign.

Part of the reason for the silent treatment has been that Biden and Democrats are doing plenty of work themselves to sow doubt about the president’s future. Seeing Biden removed from the ticket wouldn’t pack the same punch as having him removed from office, but as Justice Reporter Ashley Oliver writes this morning, that prospect is nigh impossible with a Democratic-controlled Senate and not even the primary reason we haven’t heard from leaders of the House Oversight, Ways and Means, and Judiciary committees lately.

“The three panels that have been leading the yearlong effort are engaged in a tense editing process in coordination with House counsel as they work through disputes about their sweeping final report, according to multiple GOP sources,” Ashley writes this morning.

There are mixed reports about why the reports are getting held up. Some people have told Ashley it is down to the desire from chief Biden critic House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) wanting to punch up language in the impeachment documents. But others told her it comes down to the fact that the process is a long and complicated one that requires careful balancing before it can be released.

Even as Democrats are weighing kicking Biden off their ticket in November, Comer and Oversight Committee Republicans are insisting he should be kicked out of office.

“The Oversight Committee has been prepared for months to begin the process to remove him from his office,” the committee spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday. “The fact that President Biden is declining mentally and Hunter Biden acts as a gatekeeper in the White House shows the need to remove Joe Biden from public office is even more pressing. We will continue to work with the other committees to finalize and release a joint impeachment inquiry report as expeditiously as possible.”

Previous pressure on the president pushed Democrats to close ranks around their party leader. They pointed to a cranky Congress that was more intent on punishing the president than governing.

But that was before cracks in the foundation started to appear. When impeachment was last in the political bloodstream, Biden hadn’t bungled a debate performance and the only elected Democrat calling on him to step aside in November was his onetime primary rival Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN).

Recent family drama likely isn’t enough to convince Democrats Biden needs to be impeached and removed, but it’s not clear what kind of unifying effect the report’s eventual release could have on party morale.

Click here to read more about the pending report.

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For your radar

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Biden will spend the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will gaggle with reporters on Air Force One en route to Detroit