WASHINGTON — Four days after his disastrous debate performance, the president said Joe Biden had not yet made personal contact with top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill to drum up support, five sources told NBC News, though White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients did make phone calls.
Biden’s team has been working to address questions circulating within the party about whether he can continue in the race against the former President Donald TrumpStill, frustration is growing among the president’s inner circle because they are too “insulated,” one Democratic lawmaker said, adding that Biden is not making the kind of personal outreach they might expect.
Biden has not personally contacted the Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Hakeem Jeffriesboth New York Democrats and other Hill leaders after his halt to debate — a decision that has stunned some lawmakers.
“It is troubling,” said one House Democrat, adding that White House staff should be transparent — at least in private conversations with lawmakers — about whether Biden’s problems on the debate stage were a one-off or whether they’ve seen the problem before.
Schumer and Jeffries have not publicly expressed disappointment with the outreach. Schumer’s office had no comment, while Jeffries’ office did not respond to questions.
Biden’s campaign declined to comment specifically on Schumer and Jeffries, but did say Biden had spoken to a number of elected officials.
“The president has personally met with multiple elected officials on Capitol Hill and in the battleground states since the debate,” said campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt.
Top White House officials have been in touch. Zients called Schumer and Jeffries after the debate, three sources said, and he has continued to exchange calls with Schumer to discuss “staying on the same page about next steps,” one of those sources said. Steve Ricchetti, a senior adviser to the president, also called the Hill.
While all of the Democratic lawmakers have publicly backed Biden, at least four of them told NBC News that privately they believe he should withdraw now — four months before Election Day — to avoid a lopsided defeat for Democrats.
“It’s a very difficult decision. But because he’s going to continue to refuse, and because if he remains our nominee we run the risk of a catastrophic event after the convention that would prohibit him from continuing as our nominee, he should step aside and allow a nominating process at the convention in August,” said one Democratic lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
Asked whether Biden should now gracefully withdraw, a moderate Democrat in the House of Representatives replied, “Yes,” adding that they would still like to see whether Biden’s approval in new polls after the debate doesn’t drop dramatically.
Another Democratic lawmaker said colleagues will decide what to say publicly about Biden once they see the impact of the debate on House polls. Democrats need to win only a handful of seats to take control of the House, while they face a tough card to keep the Senate.
“That should be the firewall” against a possible Trump presidency, the lawmaker said.
Another House Democrat, this time a vulnerable moderate facing a tough reelection bid this fall, said they were still processing what happened last week and had not yet called on Biden to withdraw from the race. But this lawmaker expressed anger and pointed a finger at those around Biden 81 for allowing him onto the debate stage.
“I hold his family and his advisers directly responsible for this mess,” the vulnerable lawmaker said in an interview. “They are the closest to him, and they should have gotten him out before this happened.”
The person added: “I hope someone above my pay grade looks into this.”
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., the chair of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, also reiterated her frustration with the Biden team’s handling of the debate, saying Democrats need more information to assess “what happened” as they defend their seats.
“Of course, we saw what we saw. We saw what 50 million Americans saw, and we are concerned about the president’s well-being. We were disappointed and concerned about him. … Many of us were angry at his team of advisers for putting him in that situation,” Kuster said in an interview Monday.
“And I think we need to get a clear picture of what happened, both in the build-up to the debate and during the debate. He’s clearly been much more energetic in the rallies since then,” Kuster said. “We’re all worried about him. I hope he’s OK. And so the first phase is to assess what the impact is in these tough races.”
Biden’s campaign, his political allies and top Democratic Party leaders have attributed Biden’s debate performance to a “bad night” and said he should be judged on his long list of legislative accomplishments and the fact that the alternative, Trump, is dangerous to the country. An energized Biden acknowledged at a campaign rally on Friday, “I don’t debate as well as I used to,” but said he still plans to win in November.
Many of Biden’s allies and family members have closed ranks in recent days, and some campaign staff and donors have argued that nominating a replacement at such a late stage could create an even worse scenario for the party.
“This magical idea about the process of selecting delegates is that people are on magic mushrooms,” said Orin Kramer, a Biden fundraiser and a veteran of Jimmy Carter’s White House. “They need to get off the drugs and focus on the future of civilization. He’s been a great president.”
In an appearance on MSNBC over the weekend, Jeffries called Biden’s debate a “subpar performance” and said House Democrats would hold phone and virtual discussions during the July 4 recess about the way forward. But he said he stood with Biden, whom he described as a “good man, an honorable man” running against a “con man.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board, told NBC News on Monday: “I support the president’s decision to stay and fight — the American people respect those with resilience and perseverance.”
But one Democratic lawmaker who has been in touch with members facing close elections this fall described them as “scared.”
“The ones that are worst off are the frontline workers in the swing states who already felt like they had to carry the president … and then the catch-22 of trying to get out there and campaign. … It’s hard not to panic,” the lawmaker said. “It’s a lot of pressure. It’s a lot of fear.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a Biden ally who led the prosecution team after Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 attack, acknowledged Sunday that “honest and serious conversations are taking place” in the Democratic Party about Biden’s political future.
Two Democratic officials in Washington said Biden could recover by going out more often in unprepared situations to prove the debate was just a boring night. That could include appearing on TV, giving interviews or town halls and holding news conferences.
That’s the “only way to fix it,” one of the Democrats said. “We’ve got to get him out there.” The other said Monday it was “despicable” that Biden, four days after the debate, still hasn’t held an event where he speaks without a teleprompter.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
