US President Joe Biden on Saturday attended a triple-header of campaign fundraisers, seeking to reassure high-dollar donors he can still win re-election in November despite a debate performance that sparked panic among many Democrats.
Accompanying him at the fundraisers in New York and New Jersey was first lady Jill Biden, who has fiercely defended her 81-year-old husband amid calls for him to step aside.
“Joe isn’t just the right person for the job — he’s the only person for the job,” she told one gathering, which featured actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick among the cohosts.
Photo: Bloomberg
The president is facing a wave of doubts following Thursday night’s debate against Republican rival former US president Donald Trump, after Biden frequently stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought — exacerbating fears about his age and mental acuity.
Many political commentators called for Biden to stand down following the debate, including the New York Times editorial board.
The Washington Post’s editorial board urged him to do some soul-searching over the weekend after his “calamitous” debate performance raised “legitimate questions about whether he’s up for another four years in the world’s toughest job.”
No high-ranking elected Democrat has yet joined the call, and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both publicly reiterated their backing on Friday.
Biden’s campaign has accepted that the debate did not go how they had hoped, but insists the neck-and-neck race against Trump has not been significantly altered.
Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, chairwoman of Biden’s campaign, said in a public memo on Saturday that internal post-debate polling showed that “voters’ opinions were not changed.”
She said there had actually been a surge of support during and following the debate, with US$27 million raised by Friday evening.
“I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump,” Biden told one of the gatherings.
“I promise you we’re gonna win this election,” he added.
However, a sense of concern is growing inside the top ranks of the Democratic Party that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) are not taking seriously enough the debate performance and ignoring the avalanche of criticism that followed.
Multiple committee members on a call with DNC chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez described feeling like they were being gaslighted — that they were being asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s predicament.
The call might have worsened a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors and other stakeholders, they said, adding that no questions were allowed.
“I was hoping for more of a substantive conversation instead of, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and just be cheerleaders,’ without actually addressing a very serious issue that unfolded on American television for millions of people to see,” said Joe Salazar, an elected DNC member from Colorado, who was on the call. “There were a number of things that could have been said in addressing the situation, but we didn’t get that. We were being gaslit.”
Many donors, party strategists and rank-and-file DNC members are publicly and privately saying they want Biden to step aside to allow the party to select a younger replacement at the Democratic National Convention next month.
Salazar said that Harrison suggested that party leaders always knew the presidential contest would be close, a regular Democratic talking point that irks Salazar.
“This should not be a close race,” he said, pointing to Trump’s criminal record and long history of falsehoods. “They’re the ones who should be looking for a new nominee, not us, and unfortunately for us, because of our president’s performance on Thursday night, that is now an open discussion.”
Additional reporting by AP
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