US President Joe Biden reportedly confided to his inner circle that the next few weeks are crucial for him to keep his end up to save his re-election bid to the White House

 

US President Joe Biden is understood to have told his confidantes that coming days are very crucial for him to save his re-election bid though publicly he has declared that he is in the 2024 Presidential race till the end – In tandem in an CNN interview he confessed he had not seen his “ disastrous performance” on the network sponsored debate on TV recently. 

By Ashe N Ayers News from Washington and its analysis President Joe Biden departs after speaking to the media at the White House on July 1, 2024 in Washington, DC.  

US President Joe Biden has privately acknowledged to his confidantes that the next stretch of days are critical to whether he can save his reelection bid for president, making clear to an ally Tuesday that he understands what would prompt him to accept:  “It’s just not working. “He sees the moment. He’s clear-eyed,” this person in the know reportedly old CNN.

 

Per this ally, whom CNN quotes, there is not much of an ambiguity in the series of events that the president has to confront with in coming weeks that could finally prompt him to admit that his valiant efforts to amend his disastrous performance on the TV debate in Atlanta last week is just not working. The near-future scenario for Biden could play out thus, where the polls on his popularity plummet, the fund raising dries up, he has arleady raised around 93 million dollars from his donors, the highest ever by a president, and all his interviews are going ihaywire.“He’s not oblivious.” He seems oblivious.

A White House spokesman Andrew Bates told the media that “its false to suggest that there is any openness to end campaign.

In the days since Biden’s stunningly halting debate showing, Democrats across the country are seriously concerned about having him as the presidential candidate. Some elected officials have even begun to publicly call on Biden to drop out for the good of the party. 

The New York Times reported separately on Wednesday that Biden acknowledged that he may not be able to save his campaign if he does not perform well in public events over the next several days. The White House and Biden’s campaign have denied that reporting. 

In Tuesday’s private conversation, Biden was also “chastened” as he “blamed himself” – not his staff – for the debate performance. " He said reportedly , ‘I have done way too much foreign policy. I have over done it. I did too much travel. I did too much back and forth. I did too much time change. I had a cold. That was a mistake.’'

Biden was referring to his back-to-back trips to France and Italy right before the debate, even though he had nearly two weeks between his return on June 15 from Italy for the G7 meeting and the debate on June 27, according to a CNN review of his schedule. 

Even as Biden admitted the jet lag and exhaustion from his travels had been detrimental, he also wanted to put the debate in the rearview mirror. And at one point in their conversation, Biden asked this person for advice – and then there was silence, the person told CNN.

The president was left waiting for his input.

Informed sources claim that even in the highest levels of Biden’s own administration, reservations are emerging on whether the president could to ride this one out. A senior Biden administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity told CNN that they personally view the current trend of the gradual erosion of support for Biden among Democrats as “waves crashing into the shore.” 

“First it’s the donors. And then it’s elected officials. Now it’s going to be polling. It just breaks down the resistance,” they said. “There’s a group that started small and is getting bigger and bigger.” The alarm bells have begun to ring.  

The senior official said Biden would likely need some time to “reconcile” the “pull and the push” as he navigates and digests the coming days and hears from those who believe he should dig in, as well as others who will tell him to step aside for the good of the party. Two sitting House Democrats have so far called on the president to abandon his re-election bid. Well, its not clear who that could be. 

But in public most democrat governors including the ones from Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York have met him at White House and thrown their lot with him in public proclaiming they had the presidents back.  Hes clear eyed and we are going to win, they had said.

How Bidens family including his wife Jill and Hunter, facing charges of purchasing guns under the influence of drugs, will ride out the coming weeks in still unknown. Because, where Biden’s family will end up is an important and not clear at the moment, according to an official.  “I can’t tell you how defiant the family is going to be, which is a big factor.” 

The president said at a fundraiser in Virginia Tuesday night that going on two significant foreign trips right before the debate had been a bad idea, given his age and the travails of international travel. 

During that fundraiser, Biden joked that he “almost fell asleep onstage” during the debate last week and blamed his poor performance on his grueling travel schedule, according to pool reports. “I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate … I didn’t listen to my staff … and then I almost fell asleep onstage,” Biden said during the fundraiser. The remark evoked laughter from the gathering. 

Multiple reporters who were in the room said that they believed the “fell asleep” line appeared intended to be a joke and that Biden was trying to make light of the situation in a self-deprecating manner, but it did not have a soft landing. Since the debate, Biden has faced one of the toughest stretches of his presidency and his reelection campaign is reeling.  

Campaign officials are busy scrambling to calm donors shocked by Biden’s performance.

The White House announced that Bideen is expected to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders Wednesday after some demanded a meeting with the president. Some officials have been turned off by the Biden campaign’s dismissiveness over their concerns about the president’s health. On Tuesday, a Democratic member of Congress became the first to publicly ask Biden to drop out of the race. 

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called into the Biden campaign’s all-staff call on Wednesday, CNN quoted a source in the know of the call. The source described it as a “pep talk” in which Biden and Harris detailed the stakes of the election. Biden reiterated that when one gets knocked down, they need to get back up, a familiar refrain from the past week. “Let’s go win this,” the source said. 

Biden “acknowledged the tough past few days and said unequivocally to his team he is running for re-election and he is going to beat Donald Trump,” another source familiar with the call told CNN.  “I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win because when Democrats unite, we will always win. Just as we beat Donald Trump in 2020, we’re going to beat him again in 2024,” Biden told his team, according to that source. 

Harris, who is dismissing calls to replace Biden, told the team that she will follow Biden’s lead. “We will not back down. We will follow our president’s lead. We will fight, and we will win,” Harris said, the source claimed.

Biden concluded, per the source: “There is no one I’d rather be in this battle with than all of you. So, let’s link arms. Let’s get this done. You, me, the vice president. Together.” 

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients held a less than 10-minute all-staff call to encourage his team to tune out the chatter and press ahead with their work even as questions about Biden’s candidacy swirl, a source that participated in the call said. 

Keep your “heads down, get things done, execution, execution, execution. Second, heads up – there’s so much to be proud of and there’s so much more we will do together under this president’s leadership,” Zients said.  “This team can do anything and don’t forget to have each other’s backs.” The source quoted Zients as having said.

Zients, who did not take questions on the call, told staff that the “strong campaign team” will focus on the reelection efforts while staff at the White House should focus on executing the work of the administration. He decided to convene a call with White House staff in part to acknowledge the challenges of the post-debate period, a White House official said.

In a previous meeting with senior staff on Friday, Zients and senior adviser Anita Dunn spoke about the president’s debate performance and the expected difficult period ahead, the official said.  On Wednesday’s call, Zients echoed the president, declaring, “When you get knocked down, you get back up.” “That’s what he is doing and that’s what we all need to do,” he said. 

Source : CNN media outlet