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President Joe Biden scrambled Wednesday to reignite his flagging campaign among key Democrats and stamp out a simmering effort to convince him to leave the race.
After almost a week of showing minimal effort to combat worries about his ability to win this race after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, Biden has finally started working the phones—taping interviews with two Black radio hosts and speaking directly with Democratic leaders including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And the White House and the Biden campaign held separate midday all-staff conference calls, with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris taking the rare step of calling into the campaign call and stopping by in person to talk to White House press officials, advisers said.
“I’m in this race to the end, and we are going to win,” Biden told campaign staffers.
The next few days are likely to be make-or-break ones for Biden’s hold on the nomination, as Democrats are growing more anxious about their prospects for keeping the presidency down to local offices. At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden understands the worries but added he retains his resolve: “The President is clear-eyed and he is staying in the race.”
But none of that may be enough to tamp down his party’s panic over his candidacy.
Around Washington, the ongoing debate about Biden’s future continued to consume most of the conversation. Stories published early Wednesday in quick succession set the tone, with both The New York Times and CNN quoting an unnamed Biden ally—perhaps the same one—suggesting that Biden was aware he needed to prove in the coming days that he can both handle and win a second term. The White House and Biden’s campaign denied Biden had said any such thing. But in Washington, the exact facts of such a moment matter less than the permission they give to other allies, who…
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