While his family was aware of how poorly he performed against Donald Trump, they also continue to think he’s the best person to beat the Republican presumptive nominee.
President Joe Biden’s family used a Sunday gathering at Camp David to urge him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite his dreadful debate performance, and some members criticized how his staff prepared him for the faceoff, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
Biden spent the day sequestered with first lady Jill Biden, his children and grandchildren. It was a previously scheduled trip to the presidential retreat in Maryland for a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
But the gathering was also an exercise in trying to figure out how to quell Democratic anxiety that has exploded following Thursday’s performance.
While his family was aware of how poorly he performed against Donald Trump, they also continue to think he’s the best person to beat the Republican presumptive nominee. They also believe he is capable of doing the job of president for another four years, according to the people who were not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
This whole media narrative of "Biden should step down" is all fabricated.
All fabricated to help trump.
Trump should step down. Oh ya, we know he won't and it would just be dismissed by the people it should matter to. This narrative of Joe stepping down is an attack designed to go after people with morals and standards. Which is sad, that being principled will be exploited by our so called 4th estate.
Only someone voting democrat can agree in ernest that someone with limited mental capacity should not be tasked with the job of president. Why this is true, is the entire problem.
Not necessarily, it's just a common tactic in politics to "leak" something to the media to make a positive story seem more credible by making people think it's some hush hush secret.
So it may well be true, but I suspect the messaging is coordinated by the Biden campaign.
There is still time for Biden to do the right thing and step down, but the window is closing fast. If this is such an important election where we choose democracy over fascism, you’d think they would act to preserve the nation’s best interests.
It’s also extremely dangerous at this late juncture…Hillary isn’t the only frightful replacement being bandied about by the establishment right now. I’ve also seen calls for Kamala or Jeffries to step in, which would be disastrous in both cases.
I understand I'm voting for Kamala Harris with my vote for Biden, but I don't think she could beat Trump.
There's a lot of independents still on the fence between Trump and Biden (for some reason) and I think that anyone who's even entertaining the idea of voting for Donald Trump would never vote for a woman of color.
So, unfortunately because we're so late in the election year, I think we'll have to vote for the old white guy to keep the old white felon out of the Whitehouse.
The only silver lining to all of this is that they'll probably both be dead before the next election and we can firmly remember to take age into account in the next primary if Biden wins.
If Trump wins there won't ever be another primary or general election and I think a lot of people lose focus on that because Biden is 2½ years older than Trump.
We still have 4 months. Biden can be replaced in a heartbeat right now so we don't get Trump. Biden stepping down is likely to increase Democrat support in all elections. The longet they wait the more likely it is that we'll end up with more losses other than the Presidency.
I see this parroted a bit and am not convinced most of the people who repeat it know what they're talking about. On what do you base this belief on? How do you know that voter turnout will increase if Biden steps down?
Staying in and keeping fighting is a lot to ask from a guy in his condition. Maybe he could drop out and keep fighting, or possibly stay in and quit fighting. Those would both be easier, and it doesn't much matter at this point anyway.
It matters quite a bit for the presidency, the progressive policies of the United States and its active collaborations on climate with other countries.
He's been doing a good job for 4 years, he was an old man on TV for 90 minutes.
He spent 7 days rehearsing for the debate to remember that he beat medicare. Just pick someone else so that we aren't all complicit in elder abuse and let's win this thing. Biden was good at supporting genocide... I'll give him that.
The time to switch candidates was 6-8 months ago. It's too late at this point, at least for US politics. Too many "undecided" voters seem to think they need a year to get to know a candidate.
If they were to switch from Biden, Trump would win in a landslide without having to say a damned thing or remind anyone he existed between now and then.
It's not too late. Imagine if Biden actually had a health crisis between now and November and had to drop out. No way would the Democratic party not galvanize to find a replacement.
Interestingly, according to the most recent Ipsos poll where they polled different candidates against Trump, every major democratic candidate lost in the polling to Trump including Kamala (who did poll I think one point better than Biden), some by a lot...
Except Michelle Obama, who won in the polling against Trump by 11 points (50-39), i.e. by a landslide. I was pretty surprised by that.
The time to switch candidates was 6-8 months ago. It's too late at this point, at least for US politics
That's simply not true.
If they were to not switch from Biden, Trump would win in a landslide without having to say a damned thing or remind anyone he existed between now and then
Fixed it for you. His chances were already bad due to his insistence on not listening to the people telling him to stop participating in a genocide, and that debate killed it. Even Kamala Harris would have a better chance now.
My preference would be for them to flip the ticket. Put Kamala as first and him as vice. I don't really care for her, but it would be worlds better than another Trump reign of terror. Flipping the ticket would be the least destabilizing move and would appease the concerns of age while also keeping him on for those that didn't like her (or a woman).
I'm just wondering why they left the fate of the entire free world to...this guy? Seriously? A turtle would have been better. Why run him again when it was this obvious of a bad idea even back in the primaries? Anyone but Hillary would have been a shoe in, now we have to worry.
Because he was not a "good" president. He's been mediocre to a complete disappointment for many of us who are actually progressive and want to see some change for the better.
At this point the downside is that if that debate is the best he can do then he’s absolutely going to lose.
If he does make it to Election Day without dropping out or dropping dead then yeah we may as well vote for him, but that seems like a terrible position to be in.
I am voting for Biden because he's a good president.
He could not be replaced at the snap of a finger, he's had an extremely active first term and already pursued and heavily invested in najor progressive reforms.
Unnecessarily replacing a candidate 4 months before the election would absolutely throw the election to the conservatives.
As much as I don’t think Biden should run at his age, you’re basing the “changing the nominee now wouldn’t cost votes” on nothing whatsoever. There is a proven benefit to incumbency. I don’t like it, but it’s true. And the other massive question mark is who does a majority of the country like enough in the Democratic Party (that the Democratic Party actually wants being its nominee) to just install? Because you also have to factor in the mileage the right would get out of “the Democratic Party’s nominee was installed like a dictator!” shit. No to mention the optics of a party elite-chosen candidate. You can’t say a change wouldn’t lose votes without a definitive other candidate to compare to and without considering the optics.
So basically, what you’re saying is mostly just nonsense. This is a terrible situation for us to have to be I . But we’re in it. No use pretending.
I saw with my own two eyes and heard with my own two ears too the state of Biden's health. Biden's family are elder abusers. His wife was so cringey too and came off as a power hungry megalomanic.
I never did and then he and his campaign team went and proved me wrong. The whole recent issue with Merrick Garland has to do with Biden asserting executive privilege over the audio tapes of his national documents investigation where the special investigator found that Biden legitimately has a poor memory now not being able to recall life events. Instead Biden's team pressured the investigator to revise his report and said his assessment wasn't supported by facts.
They have the transcripts. They are only pushing for the tapes for sound bites for ads. There's no additional information that is related to national security that isn't provided in the transcripts