President Biden held a video call with nearly 200 Democratic mayors on Tuesday night, reiterating that he was staying in the presidential race, reminding the city leaders how best to support his campaign and discussing his second-term agenda.
Mr. Biden, his campaign and the White House have been working to dismiss and defuse Democratic criticisms about his viability after his poor debate showing. Those efforts included a gathering of Democratic governors last week at the White House, a television interview with ABC News two days later and calls on Monday to top donors, congressional leaders and a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The call with mayors lasted about 40 minutes and Mr. Biden took three questions, according to Mayor Cory Mason of Racine, Wis., a Democrat who participated in the call and provided details about how it went — as did five other mayors who insisted on anonymity to freely discuss the conversation. Mr. Mason described Mr. Biden as “the president that everybody’s used to seeing” and not the one who delivered a halting debate performance nearly two weeks ago.
“It was understandable for a time for people to ask if everything is OK,” Mr. Mason said. “It’s four months out from the election, so you can’t have too many of those days, but every day that passes, he’s proving he can recover from a bad debate performance.”
The mayors described the call as a somewhat scripted pep rally, with Mr. Biden speaking for about 20 minutes and then taking questions from mayors selected by the moderator, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix. Like many video calls arranged by the Biden campaign and the White House, participants could not see who else was on the call or add comments into the chat screen. They could indicate their feelings about what was being said by adding emojis, and many contributed smiley-face ones as Mr. Biden spoke, according to Mr. Mason.
Mr. Biden began his remarks by again acknowledging that he had fallen short at the debate, calling it “a lousy night,” Mr. Mason said. The president then ticked through his campaign’s regular talking points on health care, abortion rights and former President Donald J. Trump. He also mentioned housing as a second-term priority.
“We’re going to make sure that we focus on the things that affect people in my city in Wilmington, Del., my hometown, as well as yours,” Mr. Biden said on the call, according to his campaign.
Ms. Gallego, the president of the Democratic Mayors Association, moderated a question-and-answer session on the call, during which Mr. Biden took questions from Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway of Madison, Wis.; Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio; and Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Mo., who warned Mr. Biden that his question might be interrupted by his son who was born last month.
After the call, the Democratic Mayors Association endorsed Mr. Biden for re-election.
Ms. Rhodes-Conway thanked Mr. Biden for directing money from his coronavirus stimulus package to cities and asked him what his plans were for a potential second term. Mr. Biden spoke of addressing gun violence and crime in cities and said he would seek to reinstitute a federal ban on assault weapons like the one he helped pass in the Senate in 1994 that expired a decade later.
Mr. Lucas asked Mr. Biden how America’s mayors could help the president’s campaign. Mr. Biden replied that “democracy is on the line” in the election and emphasized the number of field offices and campaign staff members he had deployed.
Mr. Nirenberg asked Mr. Biden about the fight for democracy and thanked Mr. Biden for increased funding for law enforcement in the 2021 pandemic aid bill.
Mr. Biden responded by discussing decreases in violent crime nationwide and reminded the mayors about Mr. Trump’s suggestion that he wouldn’t be a dictator “except for Day 1” and about Project 2025, the network of policy plans Mr. Trump’s allies aim to carry out should he return to the White House.
“You could tell he was in fighting mode,” said Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento. “Just because you’re not smooth doesn’t mean you’re not great. There was an element of, ‘Give ’em hell’ that maybe represents a different kind of strength than what we usually think of in a politician.”
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