By Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe BidenThe reelection team spent Sunday and Monday having difficult phone conversations with key campaign donors, asking whether the 81-year-old Democrat should remain in the presidential race and why they should continue donating money after his poor performance at last week’s debate.
The campaign’s National Finance Committee held a hastily scheduled call Monday night with hundreds of top Democratic donors and Biden campaign fundraisers in an effort to quell panic, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversation.
Biden’s troubled and at times bewildered performance during Thursday’s debate raised concerns about his age and drew criticism from donors, voters and some Democrats.
While some donors pointed the finger at Biden’s advisers for preparing him for the debate, others, including the New York Times editorial board, said Biden should step aside as the Democratic Party’s nominee against Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 election. Biden and top Democrats say he has no plans to do that and that he intends to defeat Trump.
Biden campaign senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon and deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said in a phone call Monday that early polls showed little damage from the debate. They added that the campaign will make Biden more visible in town halls and through interviews to reassure the public that he can handle the grueling campaign, according to a donor source who was on the call.
“One really important thing is that they understand that they have to leave him there,” the donor said. Biden added public remarks to his schedule Monday night on the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity.
About five donor questions described as “targeted” were addressed during the call, the source said. They included: “Can the president sustain a campaign and another term?” the source said.
Biden campaign officials did not answer live questions and appeared to cherry-pick previously submitted questions, a second source on the call said. “The message was, ‘We’re not seeing any change in the polls,'” the second source said. The “campaign is not going to win if the focus continues to be on his age.”
A second call with about 40 top donors on Sunday turned tense after Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez was asked whether the campaign will offer a refund if Biden does not run, a source familiar with the call said.
Biden’s campaign has about $91 million in the bank.
Chavez Rodriguez said that won’t happen because Biden is running. When pressed further, she said the money would go to Vice President Kamala Harris if the president backs out.
“Some of us in that conversation have privately discussed whether we should put our money somewhere else,” said one of the donors in Sunday’s conversation. “The last few days have been very disappointing.”
Biden is in a neck-and-neck race with Republican Trump and trailed him in the swing states before last week’s debate. During that meeting, Trump unleashed a barrage of lies, including repeating the lie that he had won the 2020 election, and Biden appeared to struggle to finish his sentences.
Trump now holds a lead over Biden in New Hampshire, a state not won by a Republican since 2000, according to a St. Anselm College/WMUR poll released Monday based on a post-debate survey.
Biden’s campaign said in a memo on Monday that its own polls showed the debate had not materially changed Biden’s appeal in swing states.
Moreover, the campaign reported, a “large majority of 2020 Biden voters who reacted negatively to his debate performance are still voting for him.”
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Cynthia Osterman)
