Staff Reports
Democrats are going to need a miracle to spin any positives from President Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate performance against former President Donald Trump. This was more than just a debacle; it was an unmitigated disaster.
Enter the damage control brigade. For months now, the Biden campaign has been on the backfoot, trying to cover up one mistake after another. According to the New York Times, the Biden team has been burning the phone lines and scheduling last-minute campaign events in a frenzied attempt to salvage what little hope remains for the faltering president.
In the 48 hours following Biden’s miserable showing, his campaign scrambled to pressure Democratic lawmakers, surrogates, activists, and donors into standing by their teetering candidate. Even Biden’s own chief of staff, Jeff Zients, reached out to Senate leader Chuck Schumer to do a bit of crisis management. The campaign’s weekly all-staff call turned into a virtual pep rally, as the Democratic establishment desperately tried to dispel any doubts creeping into Biden’s campaign offices from Wilmington to Washington, D.C.
People — including many Democrats — are now calling on the 81-year-old president to step aside. There are genuine concerns over his age and mental sharpness, but the Biden campaign insists the president is the only one who can beat Trump, despite all evidence to the contrary. In just four days after the debate, Biden has held seven campaign events, frantically waving the flag in an attempt to rally his increasingly discouraged supporters.
The all-hands-on-deck approach displayed the depth of damage inflicted on Biden’s re-election campaign. Biden staffers were even seen trying to prevent reporters from interviewing voters. Clio Calvo-Platero, the deputy communications director for Biden’s Nevada campaign, reportedly tried to stop a New York Times reporter from speaking with voters who criticized Biden’s disastrous debate performance.
In one instance, a voter was cut off by a Biden staffer just as they began to discuss how terrible Biden’s performance was and the need for a Democratic replacement. Similar gatekeeping tactics were echoed by Taylor Avery, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who experienced the same treatment at a Biden event.
This also happened to me. A staffer tried not once but twice to cut off my interview with a voter who said they thought Biden should step down. They then ushered me and the voter inside because “the Vp is almost here” but the VP did not show up for another 30 minutes. https://t.co/E8SLw4AtW0
— Taylor R. Avery (@travery98) June 28, 2024
Adding insult to injury, most of the New York Times columnists urged Biden to bow out gracefully, lauding his first term but urging him to make way for new leadership. The writing is on the wall, and even the mainstream media seems to be getting ready to abandon ship. If Biden’s campaign was hoping for a comeback, they might just be spinning their wheels.
