Many of the Democratic Party’s top fundraisers are privately sounding the alarm after this President Joe Bidenis disappointing dispute Thursday’s speech against the Republican former president Donald Trump.
“Disaster,” said a Biden donor who planned to attend a fundraiser with the president on Saturday Hamptons.
“It’s terrible. Worse than I thought possible. Everyone I’ve talked to thinks Biden should leave,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to recount private conversations.
CNBC is starting to hear those who are concerned Democratic campaign donors and contributors less than 20 minutes into the 90-minute CNN-hosted debate.
“It’s game over,” said the longtime Democratic campaign consultant, who has raised money for congressional leaders for more than a decade and helped raise money for Biden’s 2020 bid for the White House.
“Biden must go. He needs to get out now and if he doesn’t, we will be crushed,” the adviser said. They told CNBC they plan to reach out to Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison on Friday to discuss what happened at the debate.
An adviser to one of the Democratic Party’s top megadonors called the debate “an absolute train wreck” for Biden. “Worse [Ronald] Reagan in 84 or [George W.] Bush ’04 or [Barack] Obama in his 12th year,” they added.
Trouble started early for Biden in the debate. He walked out the door, appearing at times to have lost his train of thought, pausing long before CNN moderators interrupted him as they discussed US health care.
“Making sure that we’re able to make every lonely person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with Covid, I’m sorry, deal with anything that has to do with us, look …,” Biden said, trailing off.
“Look, if we finally beat Medicare,” Biden said, before CNN anchor and moderator Jack Tapper continued softly. “Thank you, President Biden,” Tapper said.
Several times in the debate, the president repeated himself or paused for a few seconds in the middle of an answer. Throughout the evening, Biden’s voice was raspy and quiet.
Biden’s co-chairman, Mitch Landrieu, told NBC News that the reason was the president’s cold. “I think the way people analyze the debate, it’s going to be about physical performance first,” Landrieu said.
Even Vice President Kamala Harris admitted that Biden was not in top form. “Yes, it was a slow start. but it was a strong finish,” he said.
For example, to answer a question about border security — the top polling issue this election cycle — it was grammatically difficult to follow Biden’s sentence.
“I’m going to continue to move until we get a total ban on the overall initiative versus what we’re going to do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers,” Biden said.
Trump has tripped over stumbling blocks. “I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” the former president mocked.
Biden campaign representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
With less than two months to go before the Democratic National Convention in August, it would be extremely difficult to replace Biden on the ticket. The president would actually have to throw down Race by leaving the decision on the candidate to the representatives in the congress
“It was a really disappointing debate performance by Joe Biden, I don’t think there’s any other way to cut it,” Kate Bedingfield, former White House Communications Director in the Biden administration through 2023, told CNN.
“His biggest challenge was to prove to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina — and he didn’t do that,” he said.