Behind the Curtain: Family digs in
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Some Biden family members are digging in — squinting at overnight polls for signs that undecided voters moved Biden's way because of Trump statements at the debate, Mike and Jim write.
- "They know it was a disaster," said a source close to the family. "But they think there's a glimmer of survival/hope."
- In a Biden campaign memo, "Independent Voters Move to Biden in Debate," officials wrote: "Based on research we conducted during [the] debate, it is clear that the more voters heard from Donald Trump, the more they remembered why they dislike him."
🎤 Biden — bolstered by a tweet from former President Obama ("Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know") — sounds like he wants to stick it out.
- "When you get knocked down, you get back up," Biden said to applause, reading from a teleprompter yesterday at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.
- "Folks, I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to. But ... I know how to tell the truth."
🕶️ What we're watching: The public backing of former presidents and current members of Congress says little about Biden's future.
- Most know him too well and for too long to humiliate him in public.
- Instead, if he decides to go, it'll follow private conversations with them — then a decision with this oligarchy. Remember, it's under eight weeks until Biden is ratified as the official nominee. That's the clock to watch.
⚜️ James Carville — the "Ragin' Cajun" who masterminded Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992, and now is a frequent TV pundit — will be 80 in October. He told us that if he appeared like Biden did during the debate, he'd want to be pulled off the tube.
- "I never thought this was a nifty idea," Carville said of Biden's run. He said there are few people the president really listens to: "He doesn't have advisers. He has employees."
When we pressed Carville on whether he thinks Biden will be off the ticket by Election Day, he said he thinks so. He invoked a famous quote by the late economist Herb Stein, which Carville paraphrased as: "That which can't continue … won't."
