CNN
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No president has ever needed a holiday as much as Joe Biden needs the Fourth of July.
Biden is fighting desperately to save his political career by stepping up his defiance, but after his disastrous performances in the debates, a growing number of Democrats are questioning whether he can beat Donald Trump, putting him at risk of being engulfed in growing opposition.
The president will be meeting with family members at the White House on Independence Day who will play a key role in negotiating his upcoming reelection campaign, and he badly needs a low-news day to freshen up for perhaps the most crucial 48 hours of his political career.
On Wednesday, amid growing speculation that Biden was considering dropping out of the race, he made it clear that he was in it to win. He then met with 20 Democratic governors at the White House to try to prove he has the energy and acumen to win and lead the presidency for another four years. On Friday, Biden will give an interview to ABC News that will likely be even more difficult than the CNN debate, as he will need to deliver a nimble and forceful correction performance. Biden’s campaigning in battleground states, like all his public appearances now, will be analyzed for gaffes and signs of weakness that might back up the impression he gave himself on the debate stage as a weakened commander in chief.
“I’m running. I’m the Democratic nominee. Nobody’s going to get rid of me. I’m not going away,” Biden declared on Wednesday, surprising campaign staffers by phone as he seeks an elusive comeback.
But the harsh reality for the president is that the assurances, explanations and message-shifting that his aides have come up with so far aren’t working — because there may be no answers to his predicament.
The image of an incoherent, weak and struggling president was burned into the minds of 50 million viewers a week ago, and it will be hard to erase even with far more competent damage-control efforts than those undertaken so far by the White House and Biden campaign.
Attempts to explain his struggles in Atlanta only bring attention back to the core of the problem: A majority of voters doubt whether he is healthy enough to serve another term that ends at age 86.
For example, on Wednesday the White House featured comments from Biden about being jet lagged after two trips to Europe in early June. Given that the president had been back in the US for more than a week at the time of the debate, this only raised new questions about his ability to handle the rigorous demands of a presidency that requires frequent long-distance travel.
The notion that lingering jet lag and what aides said was a cold might have caused Biden to stutter mid-talk and make it hard to make coherent arguments on the issues at the heart of his campaign did nothing to stave off his political decline. And it meant Wednesday became a day focused on the collapse of his campaign, rather than the serious threats to democracy and American political freedoms that Trump has warned about.
At the end of a day of scathing blows to the president, a senior administration official told CNN’s MJ Lee that the president’s erosion of support among Democrats is like “a wave crashing on shore.” The official added, “First the donors. Then the officeholders. Then the polls. It’s just going to crush resistance.”
Things got off to a bad start for Biden on Wednesday and have only gotten worse since.
— A second Democrat has come forward to call on Biden to step aside from his reelection campaign. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona told The New York Times that he would support Biden if he becomes the nominee, but “this is an opportunity to look elsewhere.” He added that “what Biden needs to do is take responsibility for holding onto his seat, and part of that responsibility is to step away from this campaign.” Few others have been as outspoken, but many more agree with Grijalva and Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who spoke on Tuesday.
— The new polling shock was bad news for Biden. According to a New York Times/Siena College poll, Trump now leads among the national electorate, 49% to 43%, up 3 points from a week before the debate. A CNN poll gives the former president a 5-point lead (49% to 44%, head-to-head poll conducted after last Thursday’s presidential debate). Candidates who win debates often rise briefly in the polls, then fall. But Biden was trailing in this showdown and needed to move up. Instead, he’s wasting his best chance to reset the race and is going in the opposite direction.
— White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre found herself in hot water again in the briefing room, as she came up with a new explanation for Biden’s poor performance in Atlanta, though she stressed that it was no excuse. “What I’m saying is that it was jet lag and it was cold, right?” she said. “Those are the two things that caused it. You could hear it in his voice during the debate.”
— Biden began a series of calls with key Democratic Party figures, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn and his friend Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware. He also recorded two radio interviews that will air Thursday in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Biden also invited Democratic governors to the White House. Both governors, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Wes Moore of Maryland, gave Biden a boost with supportive comments to reporters. But Moore, a rising star in the Democratic Party, also said, “We’ve always believed that when you love someone, you should tell them the truth. I think we’ve been honest with the feedback we’ve received. We’ve been honest with the concerns that we’ve heard from people.”
— Another governor and potential replacement, California’s Gavin Newsom, said in a statement to CNN that Biden was “fully committed. So am I. Joe Biden has had our backs, now it’s his turn to have ours.” There’s no indication that the sentiment is genuine. But there’s also no political incentive for any Democratic stalwart looking to the future to risk being seen to destabilize an already tarnished president. Several potential replacements, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, were present at Biden’s meeting with the governors.
— Some House Democratic leaders said in a call with party leaders on the House floor that it was time for the president to leave office, CNN’s Annie Grayer reported, but others worried about the uproar that could result if the president were to leave office and create a power vacuum for potential presidential candidates.
— The first signs that the Trump campaign is considering how much the former president might need to pivot if Biden decides not to seek reelection came on Wednesday. Co-campaign chairs Chris LaCivita and Suzie Wiles issued a statement warning that his successor would face harsh criticism for “hiding the truth from the American people” about Biden’s condition. “They have all lied about Joe Biden’s cognitive status and supported his disastrous policies over the past four years, especially his giggling co-pilot, Kamala Harris,” they wrote.
— Biden’s firm vow to stay in the race appears to be a response to reports from The New York Times and CNN that the president understands the next few days are crucial and could end the race. The White House and campaign have said the reports are false. But any sign of Biden wavering could be devastating to local campaigns in battleground states. Even if Biden does drop out of the race, he will likely insist until the very last moment that he will stay.
— CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported that a succession plan is taking shape that would see the president immediately throw his endorsements, campaign funds and delegates at the vice president to head off a potentially divisive nomination fight.
— Biden’s new reality was on full display this afternoon as he presided over a ceremony posthumously awarding the Medals of Honor to two Civil War soldiers. The ceremony was broadcast live on cable television, suggesting that every move the president makes between now and November will be filtered through the prism of his debate missteps and analyzed for any new signs of declining performance.
— Another problem for Biden is that key Democrats who still support the president have made it clear he needs to do more to renew public perceptions of his abilities, and have not ruled out dropping out of the race. “We’re going to trust Biden to make the right decision about the crossroads we’re facing,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said on CNN. And Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan summed up Biden’s critical period ahead, warning that “his time to engage with the American people is extremely short.”
