Biden Supporters Want to Know Next Steps: From Politico Desk

Welcome to the online edition From the Political Deskis an evening newsletter bringing you the latest coverage and analysis from the election campaign, the White House and Congress from the NBC News political team.

In today’s edition, White House correspondent Mike Memoli explains what President Joe Biden’s allies want from the president to bounce back from last week’s debate, plus national political correspondent Steve Kornacki breaks down the polls that have been released since last Thursday’s debate.

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What next steps do Biden supporters want?

Microphone Memory

President Joe Biden’s campaign is in crisis mode, and Democrats are looking for signals that his team understands the seriousness of the situation.

Since Thursday’s disastrous debate, Biden has relied on his family and a small but loyal circle of advisers for all his advice, including some longtime allies and friends who have never spoken to the president directly.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that President Biden plans to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders this week.

NBC News spoke to several people who identify as Biden supporters about what Biden can do to restore faith in his candidacy. Here’s what we heard.

Get up (and hit the road): Democrats almost unanimously felt that Trump’s rally in North Carolina the day after the debate was an important first step, especially because Trump quoted one of his favorite family sayings: “When you get knocked down, you get up.” Now they want to see more of that.

The president will give an interview to ABC News on Friday as part of a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, before heading to Philadelphia on Sunday, but then he’ll be back in Washington for a few days to host a summit marking the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding.

“I want Biden to do something, anything, that will definitely serve as a rubber sheet for bedwetters,” one supporter said.

Breaking through the bubble: It’s often said among Biden’s aides that the president is at his most effective when he improvises and speaks without a script. Some of his most powerful moments in the past two State of the Union addresses, for example, came when he was debating Republican critics on the House floor rather than reading from a teleprompter.

But when asked why he isn’t there more often, they often point the finger at one another, suggesting that a separate group of advisers is shielding him from scrutiny or they’re afraid to put him in a situation where he might make a gaffe. That has led allies to question whether fear of gaffes has made Biden overly protected and insulated, or whether so much bubble wrap over the years has made him less adept at such situations than he once was.

Even as he travels, Biden mostly speaks at rallies via teleprompter. Allies are proposing to go further than what his advisers have long promised: Have Biden meet voters in person at retail stores. “The risk is high at the podium,” one ally said. “The risk is minimal at a Dairy Queen.”

Embrace the bench: Weeks after Biden announced his bid for a second term, his campaign released a list of several dozen elected officials who would make up what it called its “national advisory committee,” which has been holding events around the country for months but whose allies say should do more to highlight the Democratic Party’s deep talent pool.

One person pointed to Biden’s remarks at a 2020 campaign rally, when then-Senator Kamala Harris endorsed him at a rally in Detroit along with Sen. Cory Booker and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Biden described himself at the time as a “bridge” to the next generation of Democrats. Biden can now acknowledge his age and limitations, as he did in North Carolina last week, but note that many like-minded leaders are helping him realize his vision across the country, in contrast to a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump.

Back to “Home Base”: Biden has often cited his late son Beau’s simple advice to him at key moments — “Don’t forget home base” — to anchor him in his core political philosophy, rather than getting hung up on details, something many allies took issue with during the debate.

“He didn’t need 8 million facts, he just needed one clear message,” one ally said.

Another added: “Noun, verb, Dobbs. Noun, verb, bipartisan. Noun, verb, infrastructure.”

What post-debate polls say about Biden’s standing

Steve Kornacki

The polls the political world has been waiting for to gauge the impact of President Joe Biden’s debate performance are beginning to arrive, but they likely won’t do much to calm Democratic nerves.

A CNN poll conducted after the debate and released this afternoon showed former President Donald Trump leading former President Biden by six points among registered voters, 49% to 43%. There are two ways to look at this result.

However, this is unchanged from CNN’s last poll, conducted in late April, which also showed Trump with a 6-point lead. Other polls conducted around the same time projected a closer race, leading Democrats to dismiss the CNN results as an exception. Perhaps CNN’s latest numbers will be evaluated in a similar way as more surveys are released.

On the other hand, if the April poll was the result of random sampling error that periodically produces outliers, we would expect that this won’t happen again next time – meaning that while the results are the same, this new CNN poll may provide a better picture of the state of the race than the April one.

Notably, four other Democrats also faced off against Trump in CNN’s latest poll, all of whom fared better than Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris doing the best, trailing Trump by just two points, 47% to 45%.

Meanwhile, a post-debate poll released today by USA Today/Suffolk University found that Trump has a three-point lead over Biden among registered voters, 41% to 38%, a reversal of the three-point lead from a previous poll in which they were tied at 37%. (USA Today/Suffolk University offered respondents a number of third-party options, resulting in relatively low approval ratings for both Biden and Trump.)

There’s also a new statewide poll in New Hampshire, where a Saint Anselm College poll conducted two days after the debate showed Trump leading by two points (44% to 42%) in a state that Biden won by nearly eight points in 2020.

There hasn’t been much polling between Biden and Trump in New Jersey this year, but three surveys since January have shown the president leading by between 3 and 6 points, and the most recent St. Anselm Church poll, conducted in December, showed Biden with a 10-point lead.

These three polls alone are not a definitive judgement of where the race currently stands; the picture should become clearer as other polls are released over the next week or so. Also, with some prominent Democratic voices continuing to question whether Biden should even be in the race, public opinion may be shifting at this very moment.

Still, the three post-debate polls taken together are far from reassuring for the Biden campaign and Democrats. The CNN poll, unchanged from April, is not a very encouraging sign, with Biden still trailing, and two other polls suggest the president’s position is weakening.

Given how precarious his position already was, any setback may be too much for Biden.

This concludes the announcement from the Political Affairs Division. If you have any comments, please contact us by email here. politicsnewsletters@nbcuni.com

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