WASHINGTON — Four days after his disastrous debate defeat, President Joe Biden has not yet called top congressional Democrats directly to solidify their support, five sources told NBC News, although White House chief of staff Jeff Zients has been making the calls.
Biden's team has sought to quell questions swirling within the party about whether he can continue to campaign against former President Donald Trump, but there is growing frustration that the president's aides are being overly “insulated,” Democrats said, adding that Biden is not making the personal outreach they expected.
Biden has not personally reached out to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat New York, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries or other congressional leaders since the debate stalled, a decision that surprised some lawmakers.
“This is troubling,” House Democrats said, adding that White House staff should at least be transparent in private conference calls with lawmakers about whether Biden's struggles in the debate were a one-off or whether they had been aware of the issue before.
Neither Mr. Schumer nor Mr. Jeffries have publicly expressed disappointment over the effort. Mr. Schumer's office declined to comment and Mr. Jeffries' office did not respond to questions.
The Biden campaign did not comment specifically on Schumer and Jeffries but said Biden had spoken with several elected officials.
“The President has spoken privately with multiple elected officials in Congress and battleground states since the debate,” campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said.
White House officials have been in contact: Mr. Zients called Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries after the debate and has been on the phone with Mr. Schumer since to discuss “getting aligned on next steps,” according to three sources. Steve Ricchetti, a counselor to the president, also called Congress.
While all Democrats have publicly supported Biden, at least four told NBC News they privately believe Biden needs to withdraw now, four months before Election Day, to avoid a lopsided Democratic defeat.
“It's a very difficult call, but Trump's approval ratings will continue to decline and if he continues to be the nominee there is a risk of a disaster after the convention that would remove him from the running, so he should step aside and allow the nomination to take place at the convention in August,” said a Democratic lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
Asked whether Biden should now bow out gracefully, a moderate House Democrat said “yes,” adding that he was still waiting to see whether new post-debate polls showed Biden's approval rating had dropped sharply.
Another Democrat said his colleagues would wait to see how the debate affects polls in House battleground districts before deciding what to say publicly about Biden. Democrats need only win a handful of seats to flip the House to their own hands but face a tough fight to hold on to the Senate.
“This has to be a firewall against the possibility of a Trump presidency,” the lawmaker said.
Another House Democrat, a moderate facing a tough re-election campaign this fall, said he was still processing what happened last week and had not yet called on Biden to drop out of the race, but he expressed anger and criticized those around Biden who put him on the debate stage.
“I think his family and advisers are directly responsible for this mess,” the vulnerable lawmaker said in an interview. “They were the ones closest to him, and they should have pulled him away before this happened.”
The person added: “I just hope someone higher up in the hierarchy than me understands this.”
Rep. Annie Castor, chair of the moderate New Democrat Coalition, also reiterated her dissatisfaction with the Biden team's handling of the debate and said Democrats needed more information to assess “what happened” in defending their seats.
“Obviously, we saw what we saw. We saw what 50 million Americans saw. And we're concerned about the president's health. We're disappointed, we're worried about the president. … A lot of us are upset with his advisors for putting him in this situation,” Kuster said in an interview Monday.
“I think we need to have a clear understanding of what happened in the run-up to the debate and during the debate, and he's obviously been a lot more energetic at rallies since then,” Kuster said. “We're all very concerned about him, and we hope he's OK, so the first step is to evaluate what the impact is on these tough races.”
Biden's campaign, political allies and top House Democrats described Biden's debate performance as a “bad night” and said he should be judged based on his legislative accomplishments and the fact that his opponent, Trump, is a danger to the country. An energetic Biden acknowledged at a campaign rally on Friday that he's “not as good at debates as I used to be,” but also said he intends to win the election in November.
Many of Biden's allies and family members have been on the defensive in recent days, with some campaign aides and donors arguing that trying to name a successor so late could create an even worse scenario for the party.
“This magical idea about the delegate selection process is like people are on mushrooms,” said Orrin Cramer, a Biden fundraiser who served in former President Jimmy Carter's White House. “They need to get rid of drugs and focus on the future of civilization. He was a great president.”
Appearing on MSNBC over the weekend, Jeffries called Biden's debate performance a “disappointing one” and said House Democrats plan to discuss the way forward by phone and virtually during the July 4 recess. But Jeffries supports Biden, saying he is a “good man, an honorable man” and that he is running against a “con man.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the Biden campaign's national advisory committee, told NBC News on Monday, “I support the president's decision to stay and fight. The American people respect people who have perseverance and grit.”
But one Democrat who has been in contact with lawmakers facing tough election campaigns this fall said they are “scared.”
“The people who are in the worst situation are the people on the front lines in battleground states who already feel like they have to carry the president. And then they're in the dilemma of going out there and campaigning. It's hard not to panic,” the congressman said. “It's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of anxiety.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a Biden ally who led the impeachment prosecution team following Trump's role in the Jan. 6 attack, acknowledged Sunday that “good faith and serious conversations are taking place” within the Democratic Party about Biden's political future.
Two Democratic officials in Washington said that to bounce back, Biden needs to engage in more unscripted television appearances, interviews, town hall meetings and press conferences to prove that the debate was simply a break.
“That's the only way to solve the problem. We've got to get him out,” said one Democrat. Another said Monday it was “reprehensible” that four days after the debate, Biden has still not held an event where he speaks without a teleprompter.
