Six days of shaking up Biden’s candidacy. Can he turn it around?
Good evening. Things are moving fast now. Tonight I’ll start with breaking news and explain how six days have turned politics upside down. We’ll also look at how Biden is fighting for his candidacy on the radio.
The latest developments
How One Week Changed Everything
I told you this election wouldn’t be boring. But I didn’t expect it would take less than a week for American politics to be turned upside down.
In just six days, President Biden’s reelection campaign has collapsed into crisis, so beset by doubts about his fitness to take on former President Donald Trump in November that, according to a key ally, even the president himself is weighing whether he can recover. The Supreme Court vastly expanded the president’s powers, raising the stakes at the most uncertain time of the campaign. And all eyes now turn to a series of self-imposed tests for Biden as Democrats grapple with the best path forward.
With four months to go before the election, Biden is not taking on Trump. He is taking on — and desperately trying to change — the public’s perception of him.
Since the June 27 debate, Biden has suffered from a series of self-inflicted wounds — the worst of which was a perceived denial of how much had gone wrong — that have highlighted long-simmering concerns about his campaign. Understanding them can help us better understand his efforts to recover — and where he might go from here. Let’s look back on six extraordinary days.
Day 1: A bad debate was just the beginning
We now know what happened when Biden stepped onto the stage for a debate proposed by his team. While Trump seized the opportunity to spout falsehoods about his record and Jan. 6, Biden’s faltering performance left many Democrats in shock.
At a post-debate viewing party, Biden claimed he had done a good job, while Jill Biden, the first lady, heaped praise on him. “You answered every question, you knew all the facts,” she said — words that would come to symbolize the denial that surrounded the president.
Day 2: An attempt at recovery
It was a noticeably different Biden who took the stage Friday at a rally in Raleigh, N.C. He nodded to his age (“I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said) but delivered a strong performance that his aides hoped would calm the storm. Party stalwarts defended him, but some Democrats signaled they wanted him to address concerns about his age and fitness more directly.
Day 3 & 4: Trivializing Creates New Problems
Biden retreated to Camp David with his family after attending fundraisers in New York and New Jersey. His campaign released two emails that appeared to minimize his troubles, attributing fears among Democrats to “exaggerated media narratives” and the “bedwetting brigade.” Those messages, along with efforts by Biden’s allies to portray the debate as just one bad night, angered Democrats who felt the president and those around him were trying to manipulate the audience.
Day 5: A Supreme Court Bomb
On Monday, a Supreme Court ruling granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution raised the stakes of the election, particularly in the minds of Democrats worried about what a second Trump administration would do with expanded powers. Biden tried to hammer home that message during brief remarks from the White House, but for some Democrats the ruling only underscored the risks of running a weakened nominee.
Day 6: Panic breaks out in public
On Tuesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first elected Democrat to call on Biden to step aside, as Democratic leaders voiced their most direct misgivings yet. A report from my colleagues detailing additional failings by Biden behind closed doors added to the concern. And some Democrats questioned why the president didn’t act sooner, campaigning publicly, giving interviews or making the usual phone calls to political allies.
What happens now
Biden and his advisers and allies are trying to convey two messages to the public: that he is fit to serve and to run, and that he is not ignoring concerns about his age and health.
Biden will spend the next few days trying to convince the public of his suitability. He will give a television interview on Friday and hold campaign events in Wisconsin on Friday and Philadelphia on Sunday.
“The president gets it, he gets it,” his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Wednesday. “He understands what people saw, and he understands how people felt.”
A second House Democrat, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, called on Biden to withdraw from the race on Wednesday. But the calls haven’t yet escalated into a stampede. A senior Democrat in Congress, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, told me that party leaders in Congress are holding off on calling on Biden to do anything because they’re waiting to see what the president’s next steps are.
Debate aftermath floods the airwaves
The Biden campaign is working to get its campaign on the airwaves. I asked my colleague Nick Corasaniti to break down the details.
On Tuesday, Biden’s campaign placed more than $7.2 million in advertising reservations across both television and radio in the crucial states of Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina.
That significant cash injection — especially during what is often the midsummer slump of a presidential campaign — will include two new ads. The first, which started broadcasting on Tuesdayaimed directly at the debate. The ad ties Mr. Biden’s remarks to his decidedly more energetic rally the day after the debate, and includes the president’s declaration that “I know I’m not a young man, but I know how to do this job.” It also highlights the many lies Mr. Trump told during the debate.
And on Wednesday, the Biden campaign released another TV commercialhighlighting the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity and warning that Mr. Trump would be a danger to the nation if elected. “He’s already led an insurrection and threatened to become a dictator on day one,” the ad’s narrator says. “Donald Trump can never hold this office again.”
The Republican campaign arm of the House of Representatives has launched a spot targeting Vice President Kamala Harris. While the ad is an attack on Ms. Harris and attempts to link her to border policy, focusing on the vice president amounts to an indirect attempt to legitimize speculation that Mr. Biden will end his campaign and she will take his place.
Trump’s campaign hasn’t aired a television commercial since June 27, and according to tracking firm AdImpact, it’s not scheduled to air again until July 8.
— Nick Corasaniti
Tell me: What do young voters think about this mess?
Polls and TikTok memes suggest that many voters under 30 are disappointed and upset — maybe even a little shocked — by their choices in this race. We want to hear from those voters. How are you making sense of this campaign? What’s most frustrating? Are you bracing yourself for arguments with family or friends over the holiday weekend? Let us know, and we might hear more.
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