NEW YORK — There is growing concern within the Democratic Party leadership that Joe Biden’s campaign and Democratic National Committee leaders are underestimating the impact of the troubling debate performance by the president earlier in the week.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison held a phone call Saturday afternoon with dozens of committee members from across the country, a group of some of the party’s most influential members. He didn’t acknowledge it Biden shows weakness on Thursday evening or the flood of criticism that followed.
Several committee members who participated in the conversation, who asked not to be identified to discuss the private conversation, described feeling like they were being gaslighted — asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s plight. The conversation, they said, may have exacerbated a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors and other stakeholders.
Instead, the people said, Harrison offered what they described as a rosy assessment of Biden’s path forward. Chat was disabled and no questions were allowed.
Many donors, party strategists and rank-and-file DNC members say publicly and privately that they want the 81-year-old Biden to step aside so the party can select a younger replacement at the Democratic National Convention in August. But for now, Biden’s closest allies argue he’s still well positioned to compete with Republican Donald Trump and have given no indication that they will push him to end his campaign.
Those best positioned to replace him — including Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — reiterated their support for Biden after the debate.
Many are anxiously awaiting the first major round of public opinion polls after the debate to determine their next steps.
Polls from CNN and 538/Ipsos taken shortly after the debate showed that most debate viewers thought Trump performed better than Biden. But the two men’s preference ratings remained largely unchanged, as in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on charges in New York that he illegally participated in a hush-money scheme to influence the 2016 elections.
In a subsequent appearance on MSNBC, Harrison downplayed the significance of the conference call, which he said was part of a regularly scheduled communication “to talk about the state of the race” and the upcoming national convention with the DNC’s many elected members across the country.
Biden and his campaign have tried to project confidence in the days since Thursday’s debate, in which the president, already facing serious concerns about his physical and mental stamina, delivered a performance punctuated by repeated stumbling, awkward pauses and a quiet speaking style that was often difficult to understand.
Shortly after Saturday’s DNC call, the Biden campaign released a memo from senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon emphasizing that the debate had no tangible impact on the election.
“On all significant counts, the data shows it has done nothing to change the perception of the American people, our supporters are more energized than ever, and Donald Trump has merely reminded voters why they fired him four years ago and failed to broaden his appeal beyond his MAGA base,” O’Malley Dillon wrote.
She added: “If we see changes in the polls in the coming weeks, it won’t be the first time that exaggerated media stories have caused temporary drops in the polls.”
Meanwhile, Biden spent much of Saturday seeking wealthy donors in New York’s famously wealthy enclave, the Hamptons.
“I didn’t have a great night, but neither did Trump,” Biden said of the debate at a rally in East Hampton.
Biden said of Trump: “The biggest thing was his lies.”
Trump, meanwhile, bragged about Biden’s performance at a rally on Friday and suggested on his social media platform on Saturday that Biden had succumbed “under enormous pressure.”
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Josh Bo in East Hampton, New York, contributed to this report.