Welcome to the online version of From the policy deskevening bulletin that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News Politics team.
In today’s edition, we report on President Joe Biden’s post-debate fundraising success and why progressives still support him. Plus, senior political analyst Chuck Todd breaks down a fundamental miscalculation the Biden campaign made about the political landscape.
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‘It’s already disastrous’: Fundraising for Biden campaign takes a big hit
By Natasha Korecki, Jonathan Allen and Monica Alba
President Joe Biden’s campaign is already facing a major slowdown in donations and officials are bracing for a seismic fundraising push, according to four sources close to the re-election, after the fallout from the debate nearly two weeks ago took a heavy toll on operations. effort.
“It’s already disastrous,” one source close to Biden’s campaign said of the fundraiser.
“The money is completely locked in,” said another source.
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Two of the sources said it was on track to drop by half – “or more” – from only major donors this month. Sources stressed that the donations were very low.
“Donors are negative. They talked to the president. The call seemed so contrived to people that they weren’t buying it,” said one person close to the campaign, referring to the recent national fundraising call between Biden and donors. “They called the most loyal and courageous people. … There were no difficult questions for the president.”
Initially, after the debate, the campaign reported an increase in donors. However, according to sources, this quickly fell apart.
A spokesman for the Biden campaign pushed back on the idea that fundraising was down. “It’s not accurate,” spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said. “In terms of fundraising, the first seven days of July were the best start to the month in the campaign — and many of them were first-time donors. On the high dollar side we have people max out even after the debate.”
Hitt did not share after the discussion how many donors reached the maximum allowed by federal law.
Progressives stick with Biden as a moderate vote concern
By Sahil Kapoor and Adam Vollner
Faced with heavy skepticism from Democrats over whether to stay in the race, Biden is drawing support from an important faction in the party with which he has sometimes clashed: progressives.
Left-leaning House “caucus” members and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are voicing their support for Biden and using the turmoil to bring him closer to his economic vision for the country in the race against Donald Trump.
“If Biden and the Democrats address the needs of the working class, they can win this election,” Sanders said.
And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said Biden should use the moment to “lean in” to a bolder economic agenda and reach out to the working class by “expanding his policies and vision for a second term.” “
A source familiar with Ocasio-Cortez’s thinking said she is not interested in infighting and is trying to optimize her chances of success. The source said he’s “looking at the Dems in panic and telling them privately, ‘Tell me who the alternative is that can beat Donald Trump.’
“She just doesn’t see the person,” the source added.
The other two “staff” members are Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. – they also cling to Biden. Rep. Cory Bush, D-Mo., said he sympathized with her and pointed to her hotly contested primary battle in August.
Biden has embraced a number of widely popular progressive ideas, including raising the federal minimum wage and expanding Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing benefits. But part of the left’s concern is that it’s missing opportunities to push that agenda — for example, it didn’t mention any of those policies in the Atlanta debate with Trump.
But as progressives provide a boost for Biden, more centrist and establishment members of the party continue to express reservations.
- On Wednesday, Rep. Pat Ryan of New York became the last Democrat in the House Urging Biden to withdraw from the race. “Joe Biden is a patriot, but he’s no longer the best candidate to beat Trump,” moderate Ryan, who faces a competitive re-election race, wrote in X.
- Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., He was content to say that Biden should stay in the race In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning. He said: “It is up to the president to decide whether to run.” We all encourage him to make this decision because time is running out.”
- Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado became the first Democrat in the Senate clearly stating that Biden cannot win the election In an appearance on CNN Tuesday night, though, he didn’t go so far as to say he should drop out.
- And actor George Clooney, who recently led a major fundraiser for Biden, called to end the campaign In an article for The New York Times. “It’s devastating to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010.” Clooney wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same guy we all saw in the debate.”
🗓️ Mark your calendar: NBC News anchor Lester Holt will sit down with Biden for an exclusive one-on-one interview Monday in Austin, Texas. More →
Biden’s struggles have been attributed to a fundamental miscalculation
By Chuck Todd
One of the true clichés about American political campaigns is that if you’re fighting the last war, you’re probably going to lose.
But what if there is disagreement about how you won (or lost) the last war?
Ultimately, one of the reasons Biden’s campaign is locked in post-debate limbo is that his inner circle completely misinterpreted and misunderstood both the 2020 and 2022 elections, including how Biden ended up as the head of the Democratic Party. And this misunderstanding led to a potentially fatal line-up of positions for the party as a whole in 2024.
Biden’s greatest strength throughout his political career has always been his ability to stay in the “mainstream” of Democratic thought. He is not a hardline liberal, nor is he a secret centrist. Biden has always been “good enough” to be in the mix, even if he is not the first choice of any major party faction until 2020.
This helps explain Biden’s personal animosity toward the so-called elite, or rather the “Democratic establishment,” during the last two weeks of his campaign’s crisis.
Then came Trump. And his approach to politics has so spooked Democrats that Biden standing as nobody’s last choice was a feature, not a bug, at a time when the party was looking for a Goldilocks-like standard bearer — neither too far left nor too right.
But let’s take a look at the 2020 campaign. Despite some attempts at revisionist history, the primary campaign did not go well for Biden. Biden’s pre-Iowa events resembled early glimpses of our Covid world. There were as many correspondents as there were voters, all slightly apart; I distinctly remember one event in Nevada that was not clearly initiated because so few actual voters turned out for it. If Biden had a constituency, Biden would not appear at rallies, he would stay at home.
But Biden’s service as Obama’s vice president ultimately won over the constituency that put him first: Black voters. And then Rep. James Clyburn made the calculation that Biden was his man, and it was enough to give Biden not just the win, but a dominant win in South Carolina. This impressive display, engineered by Clyburn, not the campaign (and to be fair, with his familiarity and familiarity with Biden over the years), reinforced the fictional narrative of Biden’s underappreciation.
🗞️ The best stories of the day
- 🐘 Veepstakes: Trump is in no rush to announce his running mate, allowing concerns about Biden to continue to dominate the headlines. Henry J. Gomez and Matt Dixon of NBC News wrote that the break allowed Trump to “gut his choice.” More →
- 🎙️ Take the stage: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will speak at the GOP convention next week after initially not being given a role at the event. More →
- 📜 Go there: Ocasio-Cortez filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, saying their refusal to recuse themselves from some high-profile cases “poses a serious threat to the rule of law in America.” More →
- 🤝 In the hallway: A bipartisan group of senators announced a deal on a congressional stock-trading ban aimed at preventing members from profiting from insider information. More →
- 🗳️ Vote and see: Officials in Washoe County, a key Nevada swing state in the battleground state, voted against certifying the results of two local primaries after a prominent election denier raised concerns. More →
- Follow our live blog for all the latest news on the 2024 elections →
That’s all for the Policy Desk for now. If you have feedback – like it or not – email us politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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