Inside the Democratic Party’s frantic secret call after Biden’s debate disaster

Democratic Party leaders desperately begged rank-and-file members of the committee not to abandon President Joe Biden despite his performance in the train wreck debate.

During a secret phone call after the CNN debate in Atlanta on Thursday, DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez attempted to allay concerns about the president’s viability as their 2024 candidate.

But those participating in the conversation claim leaders are gaslighting them and asking them to ignore obvious signs of mental decline. They believe Biden, 81, may no longer be the best person for the job.

With only a month and a half left until the Democratic Convention, many party members, strategists and donors are wondering whether they should look for a replacement.

Meanwhile, Biden is back at Camp David after spending seven days there before the debate to prepare for the showdown. According to reports, he will talk to his family about his path forward during the presidential retreat.

One person described Biden’s post-debate mood as humiliated and bereft of confidence, according to a blistering NBC News report. And the president is well aware that the physical images of him, showing a million-mile blank stare and an open mouth, will live on beyond his presidency.

Harrison downplayed the significance of the conference call during an MSNBC interview. He said it was just a regularly scheduled phone call “to talk about the state of the race” with elected officials across the country and to discuss the upcoming national convention.

Harrison and Rodriguez, two of the party’s most influential members, ignored Biden’s perceived weakness and offered what some call participants described as a rosy assessment of Biden’s future.

“I was hoping for a more substantive conversation instead of, ‘Hey, let’s go out and just be cheerleaders,’ without actually addressing a very serious issue that was happening on American television in front of millions of people,” says Joe Salazar , an elected DNC member from Colorado who joined the call, according to the Associated Press.

He added: ‘There were a number of things that could have been said in dealing with the situation. But we didn’t get that. We were lit by gas.”

While many calls for Biden to step aside have remained private in recent months, Democrats are now saying the quiet part out loud.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) went further than most Democrats when he said, “There are very honest, serious and thorough conversations happening at every level of our party.”

“We’re having a serious conversation about what to do,” he said in an interview on the MSNBC program Velshi. “I can tell you one thing: whatever President Biden decides, our party will be united.”

“Whether he is the nominee or someone else is the nominee, he will be the keynote speaker at our convention,” he added. “He will be the figure around whom we rally to move forward and defeat the forces of authoritarianism and reaction in the country.”

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are back at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland to discuss the future after his debate. Here’s the first couple pictured with granddaughters Finnegan and Natalie Biden after landing in Westhampton Beach, New York on Saturday for a fundraiser

Biden should officially become the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee at the convention in Chicago, Illinois, in mid-August. It is unclear whether that will still happen.

There is growing concern within the Democratic Party leadership that leaders of Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not taking seriously enough the impact of the president’s troubling debate performance earlier this week.

DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez held a call Saturday afternoon with dozens of committee members across the country, a group of some of the party’s most influential members. They largely ignored Biden’s weak performance Thursday night or the avalanche of criticism that followed.

Several committee members who took part in the call, most of whom were allowed to speak anonymously about the private conversation, described feeling like they were being gaslighted — being asked to ignore the serious 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. The chat function was disabled and no questions were allowed.

Immediately after Saturday’s DNC call, Biden’s campaign released a memo saying the debate had no impact on the election.

“By every metric that matters, data shows it has done nothing to change the perception of the American people, our supporters are more excited than ever, and Donald Trump has only reminded voters why they celebrate him years ago and has failed to expand its appeal beyond its appeal. MAGA base,” wrote Biden’s senior adviser Jen O’Malley Dillon.

“If we see changes in the polls in the coming weeks, it won’t be the first time that exaggerated media reports have caused temporary dips in the polls,” she added.