Democratic Party leaders closed ranks on Sunday to support the continuation of Joe Biden’s candidacy, which has been seriously weakened by his disastrous performance in the presidential debate against Donald Trump, with the White House denying any idea of a crisis meeting.
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Joe Biden is spending Sunday with his family at Camp David, the day after another day of campaigning where he tried to reassure his camp during three fundraisers near New York.
But the question of whether he will continue to stand as a candidate remains omnipresent, three days after that disastrous first debate on CNN, where he spoke several times in an unintelligible manner, swallowing his words and not finishing his sentences, his face haggard.
According to the results of a CBS News/YouGov poll, 72% of Americans surveyed believe that Joe Biden does not have the mental and cognitive health to lead the United States for four more years (they were already 65% on June 9).
On Saturday night, NBC reported, citing five unidentified members of his entourage, that Joe Biden would discuss the future of his campaign with his close family at Camp David.
White House adviser Andrew Bates dismissed the idea, pointing out that the family meeting had been announced on June 23.
Small donors
Joe Biden’s campaign also claimed that he had raised $33 million since the debate, including $26 million from small donors.
“I didn’t have a good evening, but neither did Trump,” the American president tried to reassure on Saturday, while an editorial in the prestigious and influential American newspaper New York Times called on him to throw in the towel.
And on the sets of Sunday morning political talk shows, one message came up again and again from the mouths of the Democratic leaders: yes, Joe Biden missed his debate Thursday night on CNN, but he has a good record and in any case, the return of Donald Trump to the White House would be so catastrophic that we must close ranks behind the 81-year-old Democrat.
“You can’t boil down a presidential term to a debate,” former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi urged on CNN.
The respected Democratic Party figure called for the “obvious” differences between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on issues such as women’s right to abortion, jobs, the fight against climate change and gun control.
According to the New York Times, Joe Biden’s campaign team and the White House have launched an emergency operation since Thursday evening to convince the Democratic establishment and donors not to abandon him.
“I think President Biden’s debate performance was weak,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons conceded. But “Donald Trump gave a horrible performance: he spoke clearly, but he told lie after lie,” he added.
According to the CBS News/YouGov survey, 40% of respondents believe Biden “told the truth” during the debate, compared to 32% for Donald Trump, an advantage that the Democratic leaders appeared to be counting on Sunday.
According to Chris Coons, Joe Biden remains “the only Democrat who can beat Donald Trump.”
