Many of the Democratic Party’s top fundraisers are privately sounding the alarm after President Joe Biden’s disappointing performance in Thursday’s debate against Republican former President Donald Trump.
“Disaster,” said a Biden donor who plans to attend a fundraiser with the president on Saturday in the Hamptons.
“That’s awful. Worse than I thought possible. Everyone I talk to thinks Biden should get out,” said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.
CNBC began hearing from concerned Democratic campaign donors and fundraisers less than 20 minutes into the 90-minute debate hosted by CNN.
“The game is over,” said a longtime Democratic campaign adviser who has raised money for congressional leaders for more than a decade and helped raise money for Biden’s 2020 bid for the White House.
“Biden has to go. He has to get out now and if he doesn’t get out we will be devastated,” the adviser said. They told CNBC that they planned to contact Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison on Friday to discuss what happened at the debate.
An adviser to one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors called the debate an “absolute train wreck” for Biden. “Worse than [Ronald] Reagan in 1984 or [George W.] Bush in ’04 or [Barack] Obama in ’12,” they added.
The problems for Biden in the debate started early. He stumbled out of the gate, appearing to lose his train of thought at times and pausing for a long moment before CNN anchors interrupted him as he discussed U.S. health care.
“We’re making sure that we’re able to make every single individual entitled to what I’ve been able to do with the, with the Covid, excuse me, with dealing with everything that we’re dealing with, you see …” Biden said and trailed off.
“Look when we finally defeat Medicare,” Biden said, before CNN host and host Jack Tapper gently moved on. “Thank you very much, President Biden,” Tapper said.
Several times later in the debate, the president repeated his statement or remained silent for several seconds in the middle of an answer. Biden’s voice was hoarse and quiet throughout the evening.
Mitch Landrieu, co-chair of Biden’s campaign, told NBC News that this was because the president had a cold. “I think because of the way people analyze debates, it’s going to be about physical performance first,” Landrieu said.
Even Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that Biden was not at his best. “Yes, it was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” she said on CNN late Thursday.
For example, while answering a question about border security — a top voter issue this election cycle — Biden’s sentence was difficult to understand grammatically.
“I’m going to keep going until we get the full ban on the entire initiative compared to what we’re going to do with more Border Patrol agents and more asylum officers,” Biden said.
Trump pounced on the stumbling blocks. “I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. “I don’t think he knows what he said either,” the former president quipped.
Biden campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment.
It would be extremely difficult to replace Biden on the ballot now, with less than two months remaining until the Democratic National Convention in August. The president would essentially have to drop out of the race and leave the decision on a candidate to the delegates at the convention.
“It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden, I don’t think there’s any other way to judge it,” Kate Bedingfield, former White House communications director in the Biden administration through 2023, said on CNN.
“His greatest challenge was to prove to the American people that he had the energy and the stamina – and he didn’t do that,” she said.
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2024-06-28 04:17:26
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