WASHINGTON – Four days after that disastrous debate performanceWhile White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has made the calls, five sources told NBC News that President Joe Biden has yet to personally call top Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill for support.
Biden’s team is working to repeal it questions circulate in the party about whether he can continue the race against former President Donald Trump. However, there is growing frustration in the president’s inner circle that he has become too “isolated,” said one Democratic lawmaker, adding that the president is not campaigning as personally as he might have hoped.
Biden did not contact Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, or other Hill leaders in person after the debate, a decision that stunned some lawmakers.
“It’s troubling,” the House Democrat said, adding that White House staff — at least in private calls with lawmakers — should be transparent about whether Biden’s struggles on the debate stage are a one-off or whether they’ve seen the problem before.
Schumer and Jeffries did not publicly express any disappointment. Schumer’s office had no comment, and Jeffries’ office did not respond to questions.
The Biden campaign did not comment specifically on Schumer and Jeffries, but said the president had spoken with some elected officials.
“The president spoke personally with many elected officials on the Hill and on the battlefields after the debate,” campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said.
Senior White House officials were contacted after the discussions. Zients called Schumer and Jeffries after the debate, and he continued to talk with Schumer to discuss “agreeing on next steps,” one of the sources said. Presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti also called Hill.
While all of the Democratic legislators are is with the president in front of the publicat least four told NBC News they believe Biden should drop out now — four months before Election Day — to avoid a lopsided defeat for Democrats at the ballot box.
“This is a very difficult challenge. But since he will continue to decline, and if he continues as our candidate, we will face some catastrophic event after the convention that will prevent him from continuing his candidacy, he must step aside and allow the nomination at the Convention in August.” said one Democratic lawmaker, who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.
Asked whether Biden should now bow out politely, one moderate House Democrat said yes, adding that they wanted to see if Biden’s approval rating would drop sharply in the new poll after the debate.
Another Democratic lawmaker said colleagues would decide what to say publicly about Biden after seeing the debate’s impact on swing House elections. Democrats need to flip several seats to gain Democratic control of the House, while the party faces a tough map to hold on to the Senate.
“This should be a firewall against a potential Trump presidency,” the lawmaker said.
Another House Democrat, a vulnerable moderate who faces a tough re-election this fall, said they were still reviewing what happened last week and had not yet called for Biden to drop out of the race. But that lawmaker expressed outrage and pointed the finger at the people around the 81-year-old commander-in-chief for allowing Biden onto the debate stage.
“I hold his family and advisers directly responsible for this mess,” the vulnerable lawmaker said in an interview. “They’re the closest to him and they had to get him out before this happened.”
The person added: “Hopefully someone above my paycheck will figure this out.”
Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., chairwoman of the Coalition of Moderate New Democrats, also reiterated her frustration with the Biden team’s handling of the debate, saying Democrats need more information to assess “what’s going on” as they defend their seats.
“Obviously, we saw what we saw. We have seen what 50 million Americans have seen, and we are concerned for the president’s well-being. We were disappointed and worried for him. … A lot of us were upset with his team of advisers that he ended up in this situation,” Kuster said in an interview Monday.
“And I think we need to understand exactly what happened both in the lead-up to the debate and during the debate. He’s obviously been more energetic at rallies since then.” Kuster said. “We are all very worried about him. I hope it’s good. So the first step is to assess what the impact is in these tough races.”
The Biden campaign, political allies and top Democratic Hill leaders called the president’s debate performance 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. Country. Moment an energetic Biden admitted “I’m not debating as well as I used to,” he said at a campaign rally Friday, but he still plans to win in November.
Many Biden allies and family members have spent the past few days circling the wagons, and some campaign aides and Biden donors have argued that trying to push for a replacement so late in the game could create an even worse scenario for the party.
“This magical thinking about the delegate selection process is people using mushrooms,” said Orin Kramer, a veteran of the Biden Foundation and Jimmy Carter’s White House. “They need to get rid of drugs and focus on the future of civilization. He was a great president.”
during appearance on MSNBC over the weekend, Jeffries called Biden’s debate an “extraordinary performance” and said House Democrats will talk over the phone and in person over the Fourth of July holiday about the way forward. But he said he stood by Biden as he fought the “fraudster,” whom he described as “a good man, an honorable man.”
D-Calif., D-Calif., a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board, told NBC News on Monday Ro Khanna said, “I support the president’s decision to stay and fight – the American people respect people who are resilient and stubborn.”
But one Democratic lawmaker who contacted members facing competitive races this fall described them as “terrified.”
“The worst are the front-liners in swing states who already feel they have to carry the president … and then they try to run a campaign in the 22nd. … It is difficult not to panic,” said the deputy. “It’s a lot of pressure. This is very disturbing.”
Biden ally, D-Md., who led the impeachment team of prosecutors following Trump’s involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. he admitted on Sunday There are “honest and serious conversations” about Biden’s political future in the Democratic Party.
Two Democratic officials in Washington said the way for Biden to recover would be to make more appearances in unscripted settings — going on television, doing interviews or town halls, holding news conferences — to prove the debate was just one night.
One of the Democrats is “the only way to fix it.” “We need to get him out of there.” Another said Monday that four days after the debate, Biden still hasn’t held an event where he’s spoken without a teleprompter.