by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 3, 2024) — According to Politico, the 2024 Biden-Harris campaign circulated a memo to all staff on Wednesday morning prior to a conference call to manage fallout from Joe Biden’s poor performance in last Thursday’s presidential debate.
During the much-anticipated 90-minute event, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought, have trouble responding to questions, and uttered obvious falsehoods such as the claim there were no U.S. military deaths occurring under his watch.
According to the memo Politico obtained, the campaign is seeking to preempt the fallout from an expected drop in poll numbers as a result of the debate. NBC News also reported the campaign conference call revealed by an email it obtained from campaign “senior leadership.”
The campaign denied a New York Times article claiming Biden told a confidant he is considering withdrawing from the race.
According to Fox News “Outnumbered” co-host Kayleigh McEnany at 12:18 p.m., Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, are “meeting at the White House,” although they were scheduled to have lunch prior to the uproar of the last week.
The White House chief of staff, too, reportedly will hold a conference call with his staff early Wednesday afternoon.
In an interview with MSNBC Tuesday, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who was instrumental in jettisoning Biden to the 2020 Democrat nomination, said there are “700” unpledged Democrat delegates who could cast their votes for someone other than Biden at the party’s August nominating convention.
Since Thursday and at times multiple times daily, new reports from staffers claiming to describe their observations of Biden’s diminished abilities over time have emerged in addition to apparent panic among Democrat donors and members of Congress in Biden’s ability to win in November.
Most striking, at least to some, is the media’s abrupt abandoning of its support for and protection of the Biden White House.
At 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, Biden will officiate at a Medal of Honor Ceremony at the White House. At 6:00 p.m., he will meet with congressmen and governors, some virtually and some in person, who say they want to assure themselves he is well following the debate.
Although unpopular throughout the administration’s time in office, Harris is now touted by some to be more competitive than Biden in a hypothetical race against 2024 presumptive Republican nominee and 45th president Donald J. Trump.
Just prior to a break at 12:48, McEnany announced, “The leaks keep on coming; we are getting live readouts from the White House” concerning the Biden-Harris meeting.