Scoop: Biden camp tries to rebound after "bad f***ing weeks"
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President Joe Biden returns to the White House on July 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Joe Biden's campaign chair urged staffers Thursday to tune out "crazy f***ing gossip land world," according to an audio recording of an all-hands call obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: It was the third all-staff call Biden campaign leadership has held since last Wednesday as they try to fix low morale and disillusionment among their staff.
Driving the news: Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon was candid about how difficult the fallout has been in the two weeks since the debate.
- "We had two very, very, very hard weeks, very bad weeks. I told you I'd level with you, they've been bad fucking weeks," she said.
- "This two week window has really sucked, and it is hard, there is no doubt about it. And it's hard for all of us because we are doing the job," she said.
- She added that Biden's top political adviser Mike Donilon has been saying in meetings since the debate that "he's never seen a presidential candidate have more thrown at him than Joe Biden and do you know what Joe Biden does every day? He gets up and he keeps fighting."
- She added: "If we can get through these two weeks that we're living through, we can get through anything."
Between the lines: While acknowledging the difficulty of the moment, O'Malley Dillon made the case that there still is a path to victory for the campaign.
- Post-debate "we definitely saw a little bit of slippage, but nothing significant, nothing massive, no bottom falling out," she said.
- "What you are seeing in the public polling in the last couple days is what we are seeing in our polls. What we are seeing is that this is still a margin of error race."
- She said she is "bullish" on flipping North Carolina.
What they're saying: Campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz told Axios that "if you needed a reminder for why we are in this fight, Jen provided just that tonight with the confidence and energy that matters to the team that has moved their lives to save democracy from Trump and re-elect Joe Biden."
Bottom line: O'Malley Dillon said that the key swing states "are in play. They were in play before the debate. They are in play now, and they are just going to require us to do the work."
