From the beginning of President Biden’s re-election campaign, his plan to win was to make former President Donald J. Trump uncomfortable, so that voters who were not comfortable with the incumbent would vote for him.
But now Mr. Biden is stuck in a political tailspin, with an abysmal debate performance highlighting his inability to make a case against Mr. Trump and causing collective national hand-wringing about his ability to do the job while increasing the number of House Democrats. say you have to leave the race. In order for voters to focus on the threat posed by a second Trump administration, Mr. Biden’s own allies say he must break free from his current dominance and convince voters – even and especially Democrats – that he is up to the task.
“The focus should return to Trump and what rights are lost if he becomes president,” said Representative Eric Swalwell of California, who is running against Mr. Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. “The last three elections have shown that if you focus, you lose.”
Indeed, the Biden campaign has long sought to put Mr. Trump in the spotlight.
That’s why Mr. Biden started this year with a scathing speech about Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the last election, why his allies are spending millions to block the No Label effort and why the president is trying to highlight the anniversary of the news about abortion rights. .
And that’s why Mr. Biden’s top aides think the first debate runs from September to June — to give voters a one-on-one look at Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump that the president’s team thinks will recalibrate. race, lift Mr. Biden’s sagging poll numbers and remind voters of what will change if Mr. Trump takes office again in January.
A pre-debate memo from Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign chairman, mentioned Mr. Trump 18 times and Mr. Biden just five. From Mr. Trump’s notes, Ms. O’Malley Dillon wrote that the president “will hold Donald Trump responsible for everything on the debate stage – and he is raring to go.”
That didn’t happen.
Before he can, Mr. Biden must now dispel self-doubt, a task his team has been waiting for more than a week after the debate to make a comprehensive effort. As it happened, during a Friday interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Mr. Biden drew a television audience one-sixth the size of the debate and spent nearly all of 22 minutes fielding questions about his fitness for office.
“Trump is a very flawed candidate,” said David Axelrod, who has long been skeptical of Mr. Biden’s ability to mount a presidential campaign at age 81. “Now it will be very difficult for the Biden campaign to focus on him.”
There is no doubt among Democrats that Mr. Biden should make the election about Mr. Trump, as he did in 2020, when the winning coalition ranged from progressive Democrats to moderate Republicans.
Then, when Mr. Biden won the support of Republicans and other voters seeking a return to normalcy in Washington, he ran as a transition candidate. He said he saw himself “as a bridge, unlike any other” as he stood next to Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, giving the distinct impression that he was a vessel to help the country move forward from the Trump era.
Four years later, polls show 74 percent of voters think Mr. Biden is too old to be president again.
“It has settled in people’s hearts that this will not work for them, and I do not see how there is a return from it,” said John R. Kasich, the former governor of Ohio who ran for the Republican presidential nomination. 2016 and crossed party lines to support Mr. Biden in 2020. “To campaign against Trump, people are like, ‘We have to move forward.'”
Brave Democrats on Sunday’s political talk show faced questions about Mr. Biden’s fitness for office.
Representative Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat whose warnings about Hillary Clinton’s vulnerability with blue-collar voters in her state were ignored in 2016, was visibly upset on CNN.
“We need to stop talking about it,” Ms. Dingell said. “We need to get back to talking about Donald Trump.”
Senator Chris Murphy, in his own CNN appearance, suggested Mr. Biden spend less time.
“They need to see more from the president,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see this week.”
There is some evidence that the black voters who led Mr. Biden to a major victory in 2020 have not abandoned him. Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, said her group’s post-debate poll found that support for Mr. Biden among black voters who watched the debate had increased. But among black voters who didn’t watch the debate and used the coverage, there was support.
Mr. Biden on Sunday visited one of the largest Black churches in Philadelphia in an effort to convince voters there that he is ready for work.
“Joy comes in the morning,” Mr. Biden told the congregation. “You never give up. In my life, and as your president, I have tried to walk my faith.
Even Mr. Biden’s staunchest supporters say Democrats will lose the election if it remains a referendum on Mr. Biden’s ability to serve.
“My goal is to beat Trump,” said Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who was one of the Biden campaign’s spin room surrogates after the debate. “Those who are asking him to step down and those who want him to stay are on the same page as MAGA’s fear.”
As questions swirled about Mr. Biden’s acumen and elected Democrats began calling for him to step down, the presidential campaign has highlighted Mr. Trump’s own debate comments about “black jobs” and the Supreme Court decision that gave him immunity from prosecution for leading actions. until January 6, 2021, the attack on the Capitol.
On Friday, the Biden campaign sought to expand Mr. Trump’s efforts to distance himself from Project 2025, an effort by Trump allies and the Heritage Foundation to write policies that should be implemented if Mr. Trump takes office again.
“Trump wants to tear down more fundamental freedoms, ban abortion, rule as a dictator, round up and deport Latinos and use the new power of the Supreme Court to punish, harm and potentially imprison his opponents,” said Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Biden campaign. “Joe Biden is not. This election is going to be about Donald Trump and the threat he poses to the United States.
However, in order for voters to focus on the threat posed by Trump’s victory, Mr. Biden and his team must clear what is most common for candidates as a low bar: proving the basic physical fitness for office.
“From the beginning, it was clear that Biden and the Democrats should vote for this election, not a presidential referendum,” said Matt Bennett, one of the founders of Third Way, the Democratic think tank that led the effort to stop it. independent and third-party candidates from siphoning votes from Mr. Biden. “This means focusing voters’ attention on Trump’s criminality, chaos and brutality. Once we emerge from this uncertain time, the party must return to fully prosecuting the case.