A debate performance by the president Joe Biden which caused a major conflagration within his party on Thursday, led to a more muted public response from congressional Democrats the next morning, who acknowledged his poor performance but disagreed with those who had called for him to withdraw from the presidential race.
“It was a terrible debate. Joe Biden couldn’t communicate and Donald Trump lied every time he opened his mouth,” said Rep. Angie CraigD-Minn., which represents a competitive district.
But when asked whether Biden should withdraw from the 2024 race, Craig said she was focused on her district.
Privately, many Democrats — including some lawmakers — said they were concerned. But publicly they put on a brave face and downplay the impact of a single debate.
“I thought he performed poorly,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the former House majority whip and an influential figure within the party seen as a crucial part of Biden’s victory in the 2020 Democratic primaries .
But, he said, the road to the November election is long and “one debate does not a campaign make.”
“Essentially, he has to do absolutely nothing other than keep doing what he’s doing,” Clyburn said. “In terms of style, Joe Biden is not a show horse. Joe Biden is a workhorse.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said: “He started out bad. I thought he came through on the issues well later.”
The Biden campaign worked to calm Democrats’ nerves after the debate. A congressional aide said they handed out talking points to lawmakers and allies, which largely consisted of interviews by surrogates — mainly Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro — all mentioned as potential 2028 presidential candidates.
“Some people are panicking, other people are urging them not to panic, and other people are just tired of the drama,” the aide said, summing up the reaction among lawmakers. “We want the focus to be on what is at stake in the election, and this is obviously not a good day for those of us who want to involve the electorate in the choice between these two candidates.”
And there was some synchronicity in the Democrats’ message, with numerous lawmakers, including Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, emphasized the “style over substance” narrative on the debate.
“He had a bad night last night,” said Rep. Greg Meeks, D-N.Y. “I think he’s going to have to step up a bit.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chaired the Jan. 6 committee, said Biden “missed a golden opportunity” to set the record straight about Trump’s claims about the Capitol attack.
Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the powerful Finance Committee, said Biden appeared overprepared, failed to stick to his key economic themes and missed opportunities to get his message across in the debate against Trump.
But he said he does not want Biden to withdraw from the party line for 2024.
“Let’s look at this,” Neal said. “We’ve got a long way to go in this campaign.”
Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., flatly rejected a question from reporters about whether Biden should step aside.
“You guys are crazy,” she said.
After the debate in Atlanta, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., pleaded with Democrats to stop panicking.
“I wouldn’t panic,” he said. “In President Biden, we have a great candidate and the only candidate who has ever beaten Donald Trump. We’re going to beat Donald Trump for the last time.”
Or as Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., put it Friday: “Joe Biden may have had a bad night. But we don’t want four bad years under Donald Trump.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stood behind Biden after the debate.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., compared the response to the “[m]orning-after thermonuclear beat downs” he faced after his 2022 debate against Republican Mehmet Oz, in which Fetterman stumbled through while recovering from a stroke.
“Chill the fuck,” he said on X.
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate. No one knows better than me that a rough debate is not the sum of the person and his or her record,” he added, mocking analysts who predicted he would lose. He won by 5 percentage points.
Rebecca Katz, a Democratic consultant and former top adviser to Fetterman in 2022, said the campaign rebounded by seizing on a politically damaging statement from Oz and running ads on it.
“Last round, John had a really tough debate night overall. Dr. Oz was good on camera, but ultimately said the gaffe of the night was when he said abortion was a matter between ‘a woman, her doctors and local political leaders. We turned that into an ad and went on the attack,'” Katz told NBC News. “What voters got out of the 2022 debate was what the candidates said, not how they said it.”
At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, Biden was a different man to many observers than he had been in the debate the night before. As an energetic crowd egged him on, he acknowledged his lackluster debate performance but drew a sharp contrast between Trump and himself.
“A lot of people have said to me, we need to do something. I’ve said, ‘Take a deep breath and see what happens in a couple of days,’” said a veteran Democratic member of the House of Representatives. “It was a terrible night, and yes, the party is now saying he looks 100 years old. A lot of people are saying we can’t win with Biden. But when I saw him in Raleigh today, I said, ‘Where was that guy last night?’”
Sahil Kapur reported from Atlanta; Kyle Stewart, Ryan Nobles, Rebecca Kaplan and Kate Santaliz reported from Washington, D.C.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
