While his family was aware of how poorly he performed against Donald Trump, they also continue to think he’s the best person to beat the Republican presumptive nominee.

President Joe Biden’s family used a Sunday gathering at Camp David to urge him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite his dreadful debate performance, and some members criticized how his staff prepared him for the faceoff, according to four people familiar with the discussions.

Biden spent the day sequestered with first lady Jill Biden, his children and grandchildren. It was a previously scheduled trip to the presidential retreat in Maryland for a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

But the gathering was also an exercise in trying to figure out how to quell Democratic anxiety that has exploded following Thursday’s performance.

While his family was aware of how poorly he performed against Donald Trump, they also continue to think he’s the best person to beat the Republican presumptive nominee. They also believe he is capable of doing the job of president for another four years, according to the people who were not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

  • ChainweaselEnglish
    21•5 months ago

    I understand I’m voting for Kamala Harris with my vote for Biden, but I don’t think she could beat Trump.
    There’s a lot of independents still on the fence between Trump and Biden (for some reason) and I think that anyone who’s even entertaining the idea of voting for Donald Trump would never vote for a woman of color.
    So, unfortunately because we’re so late in the election year, I think we’ll have to vote for the old white guy to keep the old white felon out of the Whitehouse.
    The only silver lining to all of this is that they’ll probably both be dead before the next election and we can firmly remember to take age into account in the next primary if Biden wins.
    If Trump wins there won’t ever be another primary or general election and I think a lot of people lose focus on that because Biden is 2½ years older than Trump.

    • John Richard
      2•5 months ago

      We still have 4 months. Biden can be replaced in a heartbeat right now so we don’t get Trump. Biden stepping down is likely to increase Democrat support in all elections. The longet they wait the more likely it is that we’ll end up with more losses other than the Presidency.

      • LeadersAtWork
        2•5 months ago

        I see this parroted a bit and am not convinced most of the people who repeat it know what they’re talking about. On what do you base this belief on? How do you know that voter turnout will increase if Biden steps down?

        • @tamal3
          3•5 months ago

          Ezra Klein has had some good content on this topic recently. He talks about how a new candidate might be agreed upon at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and the positives and negatives that might result from that switch. The drama of it all would likely lead to increased political engagement, too.

        • John Richard
          -3•5 months ago

          Pre debate and postdebate polls, aggregate sampling data, testing public sentiment on social media, comparing similarities to polls for Clinton to drop run in 2016 for Bernie who was polling higher, etc.

          • LeadersAtWork
            4•5 months ago

            I suppose I walked into that one. Though those are big words. It doesn’t explain anything, however. Once again, you seem to be parroting. Understanding is the key here, which is what I meant under it all.

            You see, the issue we face today, one of many in fact, is that people tend to read a headline, listen to a sentence, do “research” all in the name of confirming their personal theories or perspectives, not challenge them. Thus why I ask.

            Because most won’t have the slightest idea, though they sure will be able to repeat what they heard.