Joe Biden’s family told him Sunday to fight on after his disastrous debate performance in a verdict delivered at a Camp David gathering for an Annie Leibovitz photoshoot.
The president’s wife, children and grandchildren were at the presidential retreat as a new poll showed three out of four voters do not believe the 81-year-old should seek a second term in the wake of Thursday night’s mumbling, stumbling performance.
But instead of counseling the president to announce that he would not seek a second term, the Bidens blamed his staff for failing to prepare him to take on Donald Trump, The New York Times reported.
The “strongest voice” came from Hunter Biden, the newspaper reported. Hunter, who was convicted of a gun crime earlier this month and could face prison time when he is sentenced, wants the version of his father which he knows—“scrappy and in command of the facts”—to be out in public, the Times reported.
At least one of his grandchildren was reported to have voiced interest in taking a more prominent role in his re-election campaign. Biden talks to his grandchildren as often as once a day but none have yet taken an active role in his campaign.
The spectacle of the Bidens being photographed by Leibovitz, the renowned Vanity Fair photographer, during an existential crisis for the presidency is unlikely to convince internal doubters that the family are taking it sufficiently seriously.
But it was the blame game at Camp David which may present the gravest difficulty for Biden, who has traditionally relied on a tight inner circle and who has never been known to have had a rift between it and his immediate family. His family was said to have pointed the finger at the power couple he relies on: personal attorney Bob Bauer and White House senior adviser Anita Dunn.
Bauer played Trump during days of debate preparation at Camp David, after writing a book which explained how he had done it for the 2020 debates. Dunn is a constant presence in the West Wing. But a rift between the couple and his family is a new element of drama which will cause fresh agita for the Democratic establishment.
Other concerns have been raised about Ron Klain, Biden’s former White House chief of staff, who was also part of the debate prep and has been a long-term member of the inner circle.
The pressure on Biden to either quit or chart a radical new course to quell doubts about his competence was raised by a CBS News/YouGov poll published Sunday which showed 72 percent of people now say he does not have the “mental and cognitive health” to serve as president, up from 65 percent on June 9. The same 72 percent said Biden should not be running for president.
Consistently bad polling would likely force Democrats to act on the Biden candidacy but fundraising is a more immediate barometer, and one which could turn quickly. Biden had been in the Hamptons, New York, Saturday for a fundraising swing among the area’s hyper-wealthy. While Page Six reported that most who were there had been happy with his performance, one source told The Daily Beast that some who had paid for tickets did not actually attend.
One of those who did attend, former Donald Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci, wrote on X that the president was reading from a teleprompter and had “done well,” but added, “that is not going to be enough to prove to the American people that he’s up for another 4 years.” Scaramucci has publicly endorsed Biden and spoken out forcefully about the need for Trump to be kept out of the White House, making his intervention a significant expression of public doubt.
Those who are running down-ballot from Biden are also concerned about cash. One senior lawmaker told Axios Sunday, “every single donor–and I’m only calling major donors–is furious and wants him to step aside.”
Underlying the anxiety is concern that Biden’s elderly appearance at the Thursday debate has been an issue known to those closest to him and carefully managed since the beginning of his presidency.
Axios reported Sunday that household butlers in the White House residence had been sent home early, cutting their exposure to the president in the evenings, while a former deputy director of White House photography used Instagram to describe apparent efforts to protect the president from scrutiny.
Chandler West had been the photography aide from January 2021 to May 2022 and told Axios, “The debate was not the first bad day, and it’s not gonna be the last.” He had used Instagram Stories after the debate to say that Biden should step aside.
“I know many of these people and how the White House operates. They will say he has a ‘cold’ or just experienced a ‘bad night,’ but for weeks and months, in private, they have all said what we saw last night—Joe is not as strong as he was just a couple of years ago,” West was reported to have written.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates hit back at West, suggesting to Axios that he was an example of “individuals who would prefer to spend more time with the President.”
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