Inside the Democratic Party’s frantic undercover call after Biden’s debate debacle
Democratic Party leaders desperately begged rank-and-file members of the committee not to abandon President Joe Biden despite his performance in the train wreck debate.
During a secret phone call after the CNN debate in Atlanta on Thursday, DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez attempted to allay concerns about the president’s viability as their 2024 candidate.
But those participating in the conversation claim leaders are gaslighting them and asking them to ignore obvious signs of mental decline. They believe Biden, 81, may no longer be the best person for the job.
With just a month and a half left in the Democratic Congress, many party members, strategists and donors are wondering whether they should look for a replacement.
Meanwhile, Biden is back at Camp David after spending seven days there before the debate preparing for the showdown. He will reportedly talk to his family about his path forward during the presidential retreat.
Democratic Party members feel ‘gaslighted’ by party leaders after they tried to calm concerns about President Joe Biden’s debate performance during a phone call about the upcoming convention
One person described Biden’s post-debate mood as humiliated and devoid of confidence, according to a damning NBC News report. And the president knows that the physical images of him showing a blank, million-mile-long stare and an open mouth will live on beyond his presidency.
Harrison downplayed the significance of the conference call during an MSNBC interview. He said it was just a regularly scheduled phone call “to talk about the state of the race” with elected officials across the country and to discuss the upcoming national convention.
Harrison and Rodriguez, two of the party’s most influential members, ignored Biden’s perceived weakness and gave what some participants called a rosy assessment of Biden’s future.
“I was hoping for a more substantive conversation rather than, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and just be cheerleaders,’ without actually addressing a very serious issue that was playing out on American television in front of millions of people,” said Joe Salazar, a DNC member-elect from Colorado who participated in the call, according to the Associated Press.
He added: “There were a number of things that could have been said to address the situation. But we didn’t get that. We were manipulated.’
While many calls for Biden to resign have remained secret in recent months, Democrats are now saying loud and clear what they think.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) went further than most Democrats when he said, “There are very honest, serious and rigorous conversations happening at every level of our party.”
“We’re having a serious conversation about what to do,” he said in an interview on the MSNBC program Velshi. “One thing I can tell you: Whatever President Biden decides, our party will be united.”
“Whether he is the nominee or someone else is the nominee, he will be the keynote speaker at our convention,” he added. “He will be the figure around whom we rally to move forward and defeat the forces of authoritarianism and reaction in the country.”
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are back at the presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland to discuss the future after his debate. The former couple is pictured here with granddaughters Finnegan and Natalie Biden after landing in Westhampton Beach, New York, on Saturday for a fundraiser
Biden is scheduled to officially become the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee at the convention in Chicago, Illinois, in mid-August. It is unclear whether that will happen.
There is growing concern within the top ranks of the Democratic Party that leaders of Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not taking seriously enough the impact of the president’s troubling debate performance earlier this week.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez met with dozens of committee members across the country Saturday afternoon, a group of some of the party’s most influential members. They largely ignored Biden’s lackluster performance Thursday night or the avalanche of criticism that followed.
Several committee members who participated in the conversation, most of whom were granted anonymity to speak about the private conversation, described feeling as if they were being gaslighted — asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s plight. The conversation, they said, may have exacerbated a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors and other stakeholders.
Instead, the people said, Harrison offered what they described as a rosy assessment of Biden’s path forward. Chat was disabled and no questions were allowed.
Shortly after Saturday’s DNC call, Biden’s campaign released a memo claiming the debate had no impact on the election.
“On all important counts, the data shows that it has not changed the perception of the American people, our supporters are higher than ever and Donald Trump has only reminded voters why they fired him four years ago and failed to broaden his appeal beyond his MAGA base,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s senior adviser.
“If we see changes in the polls in the coming weeks, it won’t be the first time that exaggerated media stories have caused temporary dips in the polls,” she added.
