(NewsNation) — The presidential campaign is heading into Independence Day weekend with no letup in debate and speculation about whether President Joe Biden should seek reelection, while former President Donald Trump will find out whether the Supreme Court will uphold or reject accusations that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
Biden's family is urging him to continue on the campaign trail, sources familiar with the matter told NewsNation, and during discussions at Camp David on Sunday, the sources said it was first lady Jill Biden and her son Hunter who were urging the president most hard not to back down.
The source confirmed that the family is also angry at the campaign staff who were heavily involved in preparing for the debate. “They did him a disservice,” the source said, summing up the family's feelings.
In response to the reports, Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz told NewsNation, “The advisers who have mentored the president have been with him for years, in some cases decades, watching him through victories and challenges. The president has great confidence in his advisers.”
Sources said talks were ongoing about Biden holding some sort of press conference later this week to address criticism of his performance. The president's official schedule calls for him to return to the White House on Monday evening.
Support or opposition to the Democratic Party
Ron Klain, Biden's debate prep manager and former White House chief of staff, said he was 100 percent confident Biden would continue the campaign.
“He's the choice of Democratic voters,” Klain told The New York Times. “He has record support from grassroots donors. He had a disastrous debate night. But he's got the determination to fight through adversity and win elections.”
No prominent Democratic official has publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race, but one of Biden's longtime Senate colleagues did.
“The president should step aside and let the convention choose a new nominee,” said former Iowa senator Tom Harkin, who served with Biden in the Senate for more than two decades. “He's done a great job and it's time to pass the baton,” Harkin told The Washington Post.
A handful of major news outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chicago Tribune, The New Yorker and The Economist, have called on Biden to drop out of the race. The editorial boards of The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have said Biden should seriously consider dropping out, but neither have explicitly called for him to do so.
While the money has been pouring in, public skepticism has grown: A CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday found that 45% of registered Democratic voters surveyed said Biden should step aside, while 55% said he should continue to run.
The survey of 1,130 registered voters conducted last Friday and Saturday had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.
The presidential debate performance did not hurt the campaign's fundraising efforts. The campaign announced in an email on Sunday that it had raised more than $33 million since Thursday's debate, $13 million of which came from first-time “grassroots” donors. The email boasted that “Thursday was our best grassroots fundraising day to date, and Friday was the second best.”
Trump awaits Supreme Court decision
Former President Donald Trump spent much of the weekend away from the campaign trail, but offered his thoughts on Monday's expected Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
“Without Executive Immunity, the President of the United States literally cannot function!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“This is a big decision, a critical decision, one that will affect the success or failure of our Nation for decades to come. We want a great Nation, not a weak, diminished and powerless Nation. Strong Presidential Immunity is a must!”
A senior adviser to Trump said the former president plans to travel from Mar-a-Lago on Monday to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. As of Sunday night, Trump had no public events scheduled for this week.
Trump wants the court to dismiss charges filed in Washington, D.C., that he repeatedly spread false claims about the 2020 presidential election, tried to downplay legitimate votes and aided in a plot to stop Congress from certifying the vote on January 6.
Vice presidential candidates praise Trump
Since Thursday's debate, some of Trump's potential running mate finalists have been lavish with praise on his performance. One observer said they had to.
“Any under-the-radar candidate is not going to get selected. This is their time. This is their big moment,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said of Trump's running mates. “The real test will be whether they rise to the occasion and defend Trump and go on the offensive,” he told The Hill.
One of the vice presidential candidates, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, took a “double negative” approach to the praise, noting how unimportant the vice presidential candidate is to the campaign.
“He's winning. He can win this election on his own, so he has the luxury of picking someone who can help him govern, and that's going to be a good choice,” Burgum told Fox News.
Republican policy takes shape
The memo from two of Trump's advisers also called for a “streamlined” Republican platform for Trump to present to delegates at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“This platform is an opportunity to articulate our vision and provide a framework for policymaking, while rejecting any special interest influence that seeks to divert public policy from our clear and straightforward purpose,” said the memo, signed by Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Suzie Wiles and obtained by NPR, The New York Times and other news organizations.
Not yet decided: What the Republican platform will say about abortion. Democrats have pledged to make abortion rights a central campaign issue.
While the Trump and Biden campaigns await the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, Trump's acting adviser Steve Bannon is unavailable for comment. He is scheduled to report to a low-security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.
Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena from a House committee investigating the January 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
NewsNation producer Kevin Vaughn, The Hill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
