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Good evening. Tonight we look at the strategy behind President Biden’s efforts to stabilize his candidacy. And I discuss a new ad campaign by Republicans who want to defeat Trump.
The latest developments
A restive President Biden sent a simple message Monday to his opponents who think he should withdraw from the presidential race: Bring it on.
“Anyone who thinks I shouldn’t be running should run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention,” Biden said on a call into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, all but daring Democrats who have been complaining about his electability since his disastrous debate performance to stand up and do something about it.
Biden has come under heavy criticism not only for his faltering debate performance, but also for moving too slowly to acknowledge and quell the flood of doubts about his fitness to campaign and serve another four years. He is now rolling out a more aggressive playbook to try to quell talk of him stepping aside as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Biden campaigned in North Carolina the day after his showdown with Donald Trump, but it wasn’t until Friday, eight days after the debate, that he was asked about the debate in a major television interview. He held campaign events in two swing states over the holiday weekend.
“Even the president recognizes that there was too much distance between, you know, between the debate and being there,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, pointing to the stop in North Carolina. “He understands that in order to be successful, we have to do that and then some.”
It’s not clear whether it will be enough to salvage his candidacy, especially as new revelations, including the frequency of visits to the White House by a Parkinson’s expert, have thrown a spotlight on questions about the 81-year-old president’s health. But 11 days after the debate, Biden’s strategy is coming into focus.
These are four key elements that appear to be part of the Biden Survival Kit.
Save time
Time has not been on Biden’s side in recent months. But Doug Sosnik, a Democratic strategist who spent six years in Bill Clinton’s White House, learned one thing while dealing with the fallout from the investigations and scandals that plagued that presidency: Every day you stay alive — politically speaking — is a day you’re not dead.
“Where Biden is now is where we were then,” Sosnik said. “Biden’s strategy for now is to stay alive and buy more time.”
That may be why Biden and his team keep setting goals that are days away. Last week, he told an ally that he knew the next few days would be crucial, which may have given him a long weekend to give the interview and campaign. This week, he’s hosting NATO member states in Washington and has promised a press conference — but not until Thursday. And next week is the Republican National Convention, which would hardly be a good time for Democrats to announce their candidate’s withdrawal.
Time is Biden’s best friend now. Every day that Biden doesn’t experience a major wave of public desertions is one day closer to the Democratic National Convention and the election itself — and one day less for Democrats to come up with an alternative to his candidacy.
“Right now,” Sosnik said, “buying time is the best thing you can do if you are the Biden White House.”
Ignore what happens in private
A half-dozen top Democrats in the House of Representatives said it was time for Biden to step aside. A senior White House aide did not want him to run for re-election. Some governors were upset after a private conversation they had with the president last week.
It’s not an ideal situation for the sitting president. But all three of those examples are either being unfolded privately or reported anonymously — making it much easier for his team to ignore them.
So far, six rank-and-file Democrats in the House of Representatives have publicly called for Biden to withdraw from the race. But the president is benefiting from a dynamic — one he, as the party’s de facto leader, helped create — in which no leading Democrat wants to be the first to publicly disloyal.
“There are a lot of people who want him to step aside, but I think for a number of reasons they don’t want to be the first to say that,” Sosnik said.
That has allowed Biden to portray the opposition to his candidacy as the domain of “elites,” as he did on MSNBC on Monday, even though nearly three-quarters of voters believe he is too old to be effective.
Hold his base
Biden campaigned all weekend in Wisconsin and Philadelphia, including at a black church, where he was able to speak directly to the constituency that brought him to the White House in 2020: black voters.
His allies have also promoted the way black lawmakers in Congress have rallied to his side, my colleague Robert Jimison reports.
Robert pointed out that younger Black lawmakers have largely remained silent, while the highest-ranking Black Democrat in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries, has taken no steps to assuage the sentiments of Democratic lawmakers who want Biden replaced.
Still, Biden’s allies are urging their party to close ranks and stop discussing alternatives.
“The president is a nominee, and the president has earned it,” Moore said. “And I think as long as the president says he is the nominee and he stays in this race, it’s just not helpful for any other conversations to happen.”
Stick to the script
Since the debate, Democrats have been begging Biden to prove he can meet campaign demands by giving impromptu speeches and interviews.
But even as he ramped up his campaign platform over the weekend and took part in Friday’s TV interview, he remains restrained in his statements.
Biden spoke from notes in church on Sunday and chose a friendly venue — “Morning Joe” — to make the call Monday morning. Instead of going straight to Capitol Hill to make his case to lawmakers himself, he sent them a letter.
It hasn’t stopped Democrats like Sen. Jon Tester of Montana from pressuring Biden to do even more
“President Biden must prove to the American people — including me — that he is up to the task for another four years,” he said Monday.
And it hardly reflects the fearlessness or perseverance that Biden is trying to convey.
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The Republicans who want to put the focus back on Trump
Whether the Democratic nominee is Biden or someone else, Sarah Longwell wants that person to beat Trump.
And Longwell, a Republican strategist and executive director of the group Republican Voters Against Trump, thinks the best messengers are former Trump voters themselves.
Longwell told me Monday that the group is announcing a $300,000 ad campaign in swing states that will air on cable July 17-19 during the Republican National Convention and will feature former Trump voters. explain why they won’t vote for the former president againThey are also placing 15 billboards around the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where the convention will be held.
“Our role is to help voters understand the threat that Donald Trump poses by deploying credible messengers and making sure people see the threat clearly,” Longwell said.
It’s the opening salvo of what Longwell hopes will be a $50 million advertising campaign to defeat Trump (the group has raised $25 million so far, she said).
Republicans who don’t like Trump are a small but significant part of the electorate, and Longwell’s group is trying to convince them that he is too dangerous to run again.
“We desperately need someone who can effectively build a case against Trump,” Longwell said. “I see that as my job, and that’s what this campaign is about.”
