Democrats are being besieged by reporters over the 2024 race and Joe Biden’s health. It’s been a relentless media blitz that Democrats are not accustomed to—these reporters are their allies. Yet, Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate and his media missteps afterward led to panic among the party, where more supporters called for the president to step aside. Publicly, not many Democrats are coming out of the woodwork, though quite a few did come out of hiding yesterday. Privately, there seems to be a rapid consensus that this man doesn’t have what it takes to win, physically or mentally.
The media hounding has taken its toll, with some statements from Democrats being intentionally vague, like not calling Biden to drop out but also saying he can’t win in November. This political heartburn is more intense among the Biden staffers, where morale is at an all-time low. Axios had a damning report into the operation that was very much shipwrecked, humiliated, and on the verge of a mental breakdown. Like most in liberal America, the debate left them gutted (via Axios):
.@AlexThomp has reporting from inside Biden HQ during the debate.
— Jake Wilkins (@JakeWilkns) July 10, 2024
- one person laid down on the floor, despondent when Biden fumbled an answer.
- When the debate's video feed was temporarily interrupted, one campaign staffer blurted out, "Oh, thank god." https://t.co/4QqRGA09VC pic.twitter.com/6SZPadyWda
President Biden's campaign staff, battling low morale and disillusionment, held its second all-hands conference call in less than a week Monday with Democratic National Committee staffers.
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Campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon has been internally stoic about the fallout from Biden's disastrous debate on June 27, aides said.
As part of her own motivational speech, she told staffers that the 81-year-old president had been personally looking over the stats of what campaign workers are doing in key states and urged them to keep at it.
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The internal fallout from the debate was made worse by the White House's senior leadership appearing not to realize how deeply their own aides were impacted by watching Biden's meandering performance in Atlanta.
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"Is he okay?" a Biden aide texted another during the debate.
Another Biden staffer recalled that given the president's energetic State of the Union address in March, "I was convinced before the debate that Biden would clean the floor with Trump."
That staffer added that some members of their family "are panicky Democrats who have been convinced for a while that Biden was too old to run, and I'd been the one defending him. I had to reckon in real time with them that I thought they were right."
Another Biden aide said they felt "numb."
And a final Biden aide summed it up this way: "It was, in effect, the realization of every worst-case scenario."
And it’s not just staffers; a significant chunk of the Democratic Party has the same levels of anxiety and frustration about this race now that the debate has ended. They’re equally shell-shocked as megadonors and Hill Democrats begin lining up against the president, calling for him to exit. Biden isn’t going anywhere right now, and the time frame to find a replacement might not be possible.