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Top Biden aide tells worried staffers to ignore negative debate fallout amid rumors the president may back out of 2024 race
White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients on Wednesday told freaked-out staff to keep their heads down, do their job and ignore the fallout from President Joe Biden's terrible debate.
His message came amid a report that Biden privately told a key ally he is weighing whether or not to drop out of the presidential race, as the campaign waits in dread for new polling numbers and Democratic lawmakers are fleeing in droves.
Zients' call was one of many moves the White House is making as it tries to calm the storm and reassure staff, lawmakers and donors that Biden can win re-election in November.
On the call, Zients acknowledged Biden didn’t have a great debate performance last week but told staff that he’s a ‘great president’ and urged them to ‘stay together.’
White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients (right) reassured staff about President Biden
‘He didn't have a great night but that was one night and what we all know is he is a great president,’ Zients said per reports.
He made three key points: keep your head down and keep working for the American people while the campaign handles the election; hold your head high as the administration has accomplished so much; and stick together.
'Execute, execute, execute,' he told them repeatedly while urging them to 'tune out' outside noise.
The call lasted about 10 minutes. Zients didn't take questions but said concerned staff should email him. He repeated Biden's quote that when you get knocked down, you get back up.
'That's what he is doing and that's what we all need to do ... follow the president's lead,' he said.
Biden, meanwhile, is engaging in personal outreach, calling Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn.
The moves come as Democrats worry Biden may be acting to late to shore up his support amid calls for his exit from the race. There also are reports of frustration among top donors that Biden didn't join a Monday call from the campaign, giving them an update on the situation.
Meanwhile, Biden acknowledged he only has through this weekend to convince voters he is mentally up for the job.
He'll be in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday, where he will sit for an interview with ABC News. He travels to Pennsylvania on Sunday.
'He knows if he has two more events like that, we're in a different place' by the end of the weekend, the ally told The New York Times.
The White House strongly denied this.
'That claim is absolutely false. If the New York Times had provided us with more than 7 minutes to comment we would have told them so,' White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote on X.
Biden called into a campaign staff meeting on Wednesday to give them a pep talk and tell them he's staying in the race and going to win.
'Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running…no one’s pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win,' he said, according to reports.
The president and his team have engaged in a massive outreach campaign to reassure nervous staff, lawmakers, donors and allies of Biden's ability to beat Donald Trump in November.
If Biden exits the race with Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris would be seen as the frontrunner to replace him. Biden and Harris had lunch at the White House on Wednesday.
Democrats have fretted Biden will no long be able to defeat Trump in November.
President Joe Biden has privately told a key ally he is weighing whether or not to drop out of the presidential race
The reports Biden is eying the exit door are piling on as donors, lawmakers and top party officials worry the president isn't up for the campaign.
A major donor told TMZ that 'it's only a matter of time' before Biden bows out.
Another ally told CNN that Biden understands the next stretch of days are critical to whether he can save his candidacy, noting what it would take him to accept: 'It's just not working.'
'He sees the moment. He's clear-eyed,' the person said.
As to what it would take would be the polls are plummeting, the fundraising is drying up, and the interviews are going badly,' that person said. 'He's not oblivious.'
Additionally, Biden's campaign sent out an all-staff memo showing internal polls from battleground states that note Biden only dropped half a point in the fallout from his fumbling debate performance.
The move came to pre-empt what is expected to be bad polling news for the president.
'We are going to see a few polls come out today and we want you all to hear from us on what we know internally and what we expect to come externally,' the memo, obtained by Politico, reads. 'Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate — it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race.'
Vice President Kamala Harris would be the frontrunner to replace Biden if he drops out
The White House is trying to calm staff fears after President Joe Biden's debate performance - above Biden with his deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, senior adviser Mike Donilon and Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini
Amid the race to calm internal fears, there is a significant outreach operation to try and quell the growing calls for Biden to be replaced.
The president has been on the phone to lawmakers trying to shore up his support on Capitol Hill amid worries Republicans will take control of the House and Senate - along with the White House - in the upcoming elections, giving them unchecked power to run the country.
Biden also will meet with governors on Wednesday evening as he and his team scramble to stem even more defections.
Meanwhile, Jill Biden has been dispatched to the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan to tout Biden's accomplishments in the White House as polls show him trailing Donald Trump.
The effort comes as questions continue to be asked about Biden's mental capabilities to handle the presidency and speculation about who could replace him as the Democratic presidential nominee.
'Everyone is freaking the f*** out,' an official told Axios.
But there appears to be a reason for the freak out.
A set of private polls from a pro-Biden super PAC showed the president losing ground — about two points — across all the most important battleground states, Puck news reported.
Biden was also now trailing in New Mexico, New Hampshire and Virginia, three states that were thought to be safely Democratic.
Biden trails Donald Trump in the Five Thirty-Eight polling average on the presidential race.
Democrats are keeping their distance.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, who faces re-election in Wisconsin, announced Tuesday morning she will not be joining Biden on stage when he campaigns in her hometown of Madison on Friday.
And many Democrats worry the president is moving too slowly to calm the panic about his candidacy and mental fitness.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden at last week's debate where Biden fumbled in his answers
There also is talk of a brewing Democratic revolt in the House.
Maine's Jared Golden, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State all either told Biden to drop out or said they believed he would lose to Trump on Tuesday.
Those defections were in addition to the collection of 25 House members - commonly referred to as 'frontliners' due to their status as moderates in swing districts - who are set to break with Biden and day now.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphasized Biden's multiple legislative accomplishments during an interview with MSNBC Tuesday but said it was legitimate to ask whether his debate performance was a one-night thing or a broader health problem. She said Trump should be given the same scrutiny.
'I think it's a legitimate question to say, 'Is this an episode or is this a condition?' And so when people ask that question, it's legitimate, of both candidates,' Pelosi said.
Biden, speaking at a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday evening without a teleprompter, blamed his performance on a lack of sleep and noted he had done two international trips in the runup to the debate.
'The fact is that you know, I wasn´t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through around 100 time zones ... before ... the debate. Didn´t listen to my staff and came back and nearly fell asleep on stage,' he said. 'That's no excuse but it is an explanation.'
He was in France for the 85th anniversary of D-Day and then in Italy for the G7.
But he left out the seven days he spent at Camp David ahead of his showdown with Trump. He spent the week locked with aides in preparation for the debate.
However, Biden rarely began before 11 am and broke in the afternoon for a nap, the New York Times reported.
Some Democrats suggested Biden should be thinking about the broader party's future.
'He has to be honest with himself,' Democratic Representative Mike Quigley, a moderate from Illinois, told CNN on Tuesday.
'It's his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts, not just his race, but all the other races coming in November.'
And Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, whose endorsement of Biden in 2020 helped him become the nominee, told MSNBC that he still wanted a presidential ticket with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
But then he announced who he would endorse if Biden exited the race.
'I will support her if he were to step aside,' Clyburn said of Harris.