WASHINGTON — As top Democrats offered a public show of support for President Joe Biden over the weekend, his advisers worked privately on Sunday to counter his bids to step aside, with a campaign manager calling the mechanism for replacing him on the ticket sloppy and sloppy. impractical.
During a tense conversation with a group of about 40 of Biden’s top financial backers, campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez laid out what can and can’t be done with the campaign’s infrastructure if Biden steps aside, stressing on the call that she has no plans to. from doing so.
Much of the campaign’s significant war chest will fall on Vice President Kamala Harris, Chavez Rodriguez said, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The Democratic National Committee will only keep a smaller pool of money.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who joined part of the call, stressed the process would be “messy,” as several donors floated what one participant derisively called “West Wing”-style scenarios for replacing Biden. and predicted that Harris would eventually become the nominee.
Sunday’s call was just one of a series of similar conversations Biden’s top advisers and campaign leaders have had with Democratic officials and donors since Biden’s debate suspension rattled the party elite.
The conversation was one of the more candid conversations the campaign has had with a larger group in recent days, addressing the delicate question of who exactly might succeed Biden if he steps aside.
Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon is also set to call with a larger group of donors on Monday night, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
Meanwhile, Biden’s family — the people who influence him most — met during a long-planned gathering in Camp David, Maryland, to discuss the future of his campaign. This was first reported by NBC News.
Two sources familiar with the discussions said the message Biden’s children and grandchildren sent in a photo shoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz on Sunday was to “keep fighting.”
In recent days, some of Biden’s family members have expressed deep frustration with the aides and advisers preparing him for the weekend debates, multiple sources said. A senior Biden adviser dismissed such suggestions as false, while a campaign spokesman said Biden still trusted his top staff.
“The aides who prepare the president have been with him for years, often decades, and have seen him through triumphs and tribulations. He has strong confidence in them,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.
The campaign’s public stance on Sunday was to draw attention to the positive, or at least neutral, response of voters and local supporters to Biden’s first debate against former President Donald Trump.
“Every time Donald Trump opened his mouth, those dials fell. They’re just completely down,” Biden campaign pollster Molly Murphy said Thursday on MSNBC, referring to the campaign’s live panels.[Voters] The president came across as someone who cared about average and working-class Americans, and compared to Trump, he seemed more presidential, more likable, more truthful.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in another MSNBC interview: “It was definitely a failure. But of course, I believe that failure is nothing more than preparation for a comeback.”
During a call with donors, Chavez Rodriguez noted that the campaign has raised $33 million since the debate and even received hundreds of new applications from people who want to join the campaign.
Coons also made a “fiery” case for Biden, pointing to his performance at recent international gatherings and his campaign rally To say that there is no evidence that Thursday’s debate in North Carolina was anything but a bad night.
One attendee said many of those at the rally were still behind Biden, but “many of the attendees were scared.”
“There have been some harsh comments from callers. Some were upset because they were just hearing campaign talking points,” the attendee said, adding that some donors had asked for their contributions to be refunded.
Another senior Democratic official who spoke directly to Biden and members of his campaign team said he was confident Biden would stay in the race and described his team’s stance as “empowering.”
But he said he had a lot of “one-off texts and conversations” with peers and predicted the next two weeks would be critical.
“We will have surveys and counting of money. If they’re good, that’s what it means [remains in the race]. If not, all bets are off,” the official said. He will “make a decision based on information rather than emotion. It is too early to call.”