White House aides fill group chats with distraught messages about the debate: ‘Abysmal’
Chaos broke out in the White House on Friday as party officials, loyal aides and donors delved into the failure of their candidate and boss in the disastrous debate with Donald Trump.
A sense of foreboding emerged among some Biden aides as they saw the car crash results, prompting veterans of the Obama and Bill Clinton campaigns to openly ponder whether he should be replaced.
“Right now people are all talking to each other,” Bill Clinton guru James Careville told DailyMail.com. “Believe me, it’s much more than the consultant class. And especially the donor class,” he said.
The mood in the White House is “not good,” CNN reported, as shocked aides exchanged somber observations on empty group chats. Aides called the performance “terrible” and “ugly.”
Many assistants were so drained that they chose to work from home. We are just sympathizing and we didn’t want to do that at a desk, said one.
President Biden and some of his top deputies did not have that luxury. The president held a rally with supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Aides shared their critical assessments of an “ugly” debate performance from President Joe Biden, with Democratic aides relying on expletives to describe the current state of the race
Some employees were so upset by the president’s actions during the debate, which started at 9 p.m. and led almost immediately to muttered reactions, that they updated their LinkedIn profiles last night “just to be safe,” Politico reported.
There was an organized effort to circle the wagons, with telegenic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro taking to the airwaves hours after Joe Biden’s debate flop to tell members of his party that they should “no longer had to worry’.
Shapiro, 51, emerged as a surrogate for the Biden campaign after top political operatives hit the panic button over the president’s faltering performance. Influential columnist Tom Friedman called Biden’s performance “heartbreaking” and said he had “no business running for re-election.”
“I would say to all those people who are worried right now, get to work and stop worrying,” he told CNN, acknowledging that Biden had had a “bad night” and saying the campaign needed a “sharper message.”
David Axelrod, a former political adviser to Obama, was among those who expressed doubts about Biden’s re-election bid months ago. He has continued to voice his concerns.
‘It is not easy. The president is the one who holds the cards here. If he wants to be the nominee and stay the nominee, then he will be the nominee.
Then he added, “Maybe he decides it’s patriotic to step aside.”
Joining the pushback was Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who told fellow Democrats to “chill out” amid the panic.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Sec. was forced to remind Democrats that the “choice in this election remains very simple” and “I will be voting for Biden.”
Obama’s post-presidential operation refuted an online rumor that he was heading to the White House to intervene.
Among the former White House aides who sounded the alarm is Jon Favreau, who helped write many of Obama’s memorable campaign and White House speeches.
“That debate was clearly a fucking disaster,” he said on his joint Pod Save America podcast. “We have to beat Donald Trump. We have to have a nominee who can do that. And since we haven’t had the convention yet, it would be absurd for Democrats not to at least have a serious conversation about whether Joe Biden — who is a great person and has been a great president — is fit for the job,” he said.
Amid the turmoil, Biden’s top campaign officials Julie Chavez Rodriguez and Quentin Fulks tried to reassure donors, reporters in Washington. They acknowledged that Biden was not at his best but insisted he could still win.