Inside the Biden team's "damage control call" for jumpy donors
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President Biden speaks on the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity at the White House on Monday. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Anxious Democratic donors grilled Biden campaign officials on a Zoom call Monday, pressing Biden's team on how it will deal with new concerns about his fitness for office, according to four donors on the call.
Why it matters: There wasn't much panic during the special call for wealthy donors — but there was a fair degree of skepticism.
- Donors' questions revealed deep doubts within the Democratic Party on whether Biden has the stamina, skill and substance to go toe-to-toe with former President Trump for the next four months, defeat him on Nov. 5, and serve another four-year term.
Donors didn't find the campaign's answers totally satisfying.
- "It was a damage control call," one participant said.
- "I don't know what the pathway forward is, and I think they are trying to figure that out, too," another donor told Axios. "We all saw what we saw."
Between the lines: Campaign officials — including co-chair Jen O'Malley Dillon, pollster Molly Murphy and finance chair Rufus Gifford — didn't try to change donors' perceptions of Biden's debate performance. They stipulated, just like Biden himself, that he had a bad night.
- But they did offer an argument — and some data — on how Biden might recover and still beat Trump.
Driving the news: After presentations from Dillon and Murphy, roughly 500 members of Biden's regional and national finance committee had the chance to ask questions in a group, which the call moderators controlled.
- Participants were muted. One of the first questions dealt with Biden's overall stamina and whether he could continue his presidential campaign.
O'Malley responded that Biden knows he has to improve and show the public he can run an effective campaign — as well as the country.
- Officials were asked what the campaign would do if polling showed a significant drop in support for Biden. They told donors they expect Biden's polling to take a slight hit after the debate. But they pointed to internal polling they said indicates the race is largely unchanged, with Trump holding a slight lead in swing states.
- The campaign officials claimed they haven't seen a significant deterioration in their internal polls. But one donor told Axios the campaign didn't provide enough evidence to support that claim.
The Biden official's response to a question on many Americans' minds — what happened to Biden on Thursday — amounted to repeating lines they used Friday: Biden had a cold and: "It was a bad debate."
- The donors were reminded of President Obama's rough first debate — and polling rebound — in his 2012 campaign.
The big picture: Donors don't have a direct say in whether Biden should become the Democrats' presumptive nominee. That's up to the delegates at the Democratic National Convention, when they hold a virtual roll call sometime before Aug. 7.
- But if the Biden campaign loses donor support, it would be exceedingly difficult for Biden to continue.
- For starters, he wouldn't be able to keep funding his campaign or match Trump, who has raised more money than Biden in the past two months.
- Donors also can pressure congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), to convince Biden to step aside for the good of the party.
- Schumer had been nervous about Biden's ability to meet expectations in the debate, Axios has reported.
Go deeper: Biden's inner circle is hunkering down for a fight — and is preparing to ride out the negative reactions to his debate performance.
