By Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly
(Reuters) – US president Joe Biden could increase his direct engagement with voters and journalists in the coming weeks, hoping to reassure Democrats shocked by his dismal debate performance last week, two people involved in the planning said.
The events could include a combination of a town hall meeting with voters, one-on-one interviews with top Washington journalists or a solo press conference where Biden would answer multiple questions, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
July will be a crucial month for the 81-year-old Biden, who is grappling with calls from within his own party to drop out of the race after a dismal debate performance on Thursday raised new questions about his age.
The Biden administration is also hosting a crucial meeting of world leaders in Washington this month, and will be watching warily for opinion polls that will detail the potential impact of the debate.
Meanwhile, the Republican National Convention will meet in Milwaukee in mid-July to nominate an opponent Donald Trumpan event that will likely raise questions about Biden’s ability to serve for four more years.
“It’s absolutely vital that the campaign and the White House aggressively advance the president, get him out of the bunker, out of the bubble, get him in front of people in all kinds of different forums,” said Matt Bennett, who works at the think tank Third Way and previously served in then-president’s Democratic party Bill ClintonThe White House.
The White House and Biden’s campaign have limited in-person television interviews with the president, not granting interviews to major newspapers and news outlets since his inauguration, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
Staffers now believe that position is no longer sustainable — at least not in the short term — as political pundits and news organizations, including the Times editorial board, have called on him to withdraw from the race.
“One-on-one interviews are currently being discussed,” said a source involved in the planning. He added that no final decision has been made yet.
Biden is also under fire for wanting to hold more press conferences with groups of reporters.
Data collected by the nonpartisan American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, dating back to the beginning of George H.W. Bush’s presidency in 1989, shows that Biden has held more solo news conferences than Donald Trump or George W. Bush in his first three years – but less than Bill Clinton, Barack Obama or the elder Bush.
Democratic Party strategists and supporters say the more ways the public can see him answer candid questions, the better.
“It would be great if President Biden led several press conferences in the coming weeks,” said Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic strategist. “Then a strong speech at the convention could go a long way toward dispelling any lingering doubts among voters.”
Biden will also take to the world stage when Washington hosts the July 9-11 NATO summit, where the alliance’s 32 member states will discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and efforts to further isolate Russia.
Biden embarked on a series of fundraising events in the days following the debate, raising more than $27 million.
Unite the Country, a pro-Biden super PAC, will launch a new seven-figure ad buy in support of the president after July 4, CEO Steve Schale told Reuters. It is aimed at “no-no” voters in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania who are undecided about voting for Biden or Trump.
The ad was planned before the debate, Schale said.
Democrats on Sunday ruled out Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, calling on party members to focus instead on the consequences of a second Trump presidency.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)
