Biden meets with Democratic governors and congressmen to reassure them about his ability

A “bad night” when he had “a cold.” That is the official version of the White House on what happened last Thursday in the Atlanta debate that pitted President Joe Biden against his predecessor, Donald Trump. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre expressed her desire to turn the page on what happened at a press conference on Tuesday. However, it will not be that simple. A leading congressman from his party has launched an open public request that Biden withdraw from the re-election race after his disastrous debate. Democratic governors are worried and the president is meeting with them and congressional leaders on Wednesday to try to reassure them about his physical and mental capacity.

Biden continued his damage containment tour on Tuesday, adding a new excuse to his argument: fatigue from international travel in the weeks leading up to the debate. It sounds unconvincing, considering he spent almost a week holed up at Camp David in Maryland, preparing. At a fundraiser in Virginia, he admitted on Tuesday that he did not have a good debate, saying that he was “not very smart” to “travel around the world a couple of times” before the face-to-face. “I decided to travel around the world a couple of times just before the debate, I didn’t listen to my staff… and then I almost fell asleep on stage,” he acknowledged. “It’s not an excuse, but an explanation,” he argued.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself, who showed her support for the president, He admitted this Tuesday in an interview on MSNBC It is legitimate to wonder whether what viewers saw last Thursday is “an episode or a condition.” Whether Biden had, as Jean-Pierre says, a bad night or whether the problem is much deeper, as they insist on denying, but people increasingly suspect. Pelosi recommended that the president grant interviews to “serious journalists” and, precisely as part of the campaign to recover his image, Biden will give an interview on Friday to the ABC network, where he hopes to demonstrate that he is in good condition.

Many congressmen admitted, even publicly, that the president had performed poorly in the debate. What none had done until Tuesday was openly ask their leader to give up re-election. The one who broke the ice was Congressman from Texas Lloyd Doggett, who is serving his 15th term as a member of the House of Representatives, and who is again playing for re-election in November in a district of Austin, the state capital. He did so through a statement and several interviews. In his note, he points out that Biden was unable to effectively defend his achievements and expose Trump’s lies and assures that he should give up re-election.

Doggett uses a historical comparison that Democrats avoid like the plague. “I represent the heart of a congressional district that Lyndon Johnson once represented,” he says in his statement. “Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to retire. President Biden should do the same.” Lyndon Johnson is one of the few presidents who did not run for reelection. He threw in the towel in 1968, a year when, as in August of that year, the Democratic convention was held in Chicago. From that open convention, his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, emerged as the anointed candidate, who later failed to win against Richard Nixon.

A difficult decision

“My decision to make these strong reservations public is not made lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has accomplished,” Doggett said. “Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not to himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully ask that he do so.”

A poor showing in the presidential election is often reflected in the results of the midterm elections as well. On November 5, 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 senators are up for election. There is a good chance that the Democrats, who dominate the upper chamber by a majority of 51 to 49, including independents, will lose their control. Among the senators up for election in November, there are 24 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

While Republicans are competing in favorable constituencies, Democrats are defending seats they have won in areas that are now conservative. They risk losing their seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, and to a lesser extent in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. A hypothetical poor Democratic result weighed down by Biden would also allow the Republicans to renew their majority in the House of Representatives.

There are also gubernatorial elections in 11 states, although in this case eight Republicans and only three Democrats are up for election. Among the latter, the governors of Washington State and Delaware are almost guaranteed re-election, but the governor of North Carolina is in danger. On the other hand, of the eight Republican states, the Democrats have aspirations of winning back New Hampshire.

Democratic governors are concerned about what they saw in the debate. They met by teleconference on Monday and agreed to make an appointment with the president, with whom they will meet on Wednesday, partly in person and partly online. It is part of the display of activity with which the president wants to counteract the bad impression left in last week’s debate.

Biden will meet with governors, then give an interview to ABC, travel to Wisconsin on Friday and Philadelphia on Sunday for campaign events and hold a news conference during next week’s NATO summit in Washington.

Karine Jean-Pierre’s press conference on Tuesday, her first at the White House since Thursday’s debate, was almost monotonous. The spokeswoman faced a barrage of questions about the president’s mental acuity, including one direct question about whether he suffers from dementia or some kind of degenerative disease. “No. And I hope they’re asking the other guy that question,” Jean-Pierre replied.

The spokeswoman admitted that the media and the American people have a right to wonder about the president’s physical condition, but rejected the idea that he should undergo cognitive tests or provide additional information about his health beyond the medical report he publishes each year. She believes that stepping up his activity and appearing in public will be enough to dispel any doubts. “We are going out there, all over the country. The Americans are going to see for themselves,” Jean-Pierre said at the press conference.

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