The Biden campaign issued a memo to reporters on Saturday seeking to work the refs after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate with President Trump Thursday night that saw Biden looking dazed and struggling to speak coherently at times.
While presidential debates are traditionally held in the fall in the weeks before the November election, this debate was scheduled for late June at Biden’s request in an effort to change the dynamics of a campaign that saw him tied or losing to Trump (mostly losing) in national and key swing state polls. In 2020 polls, Trump never led Biden in polls.
Instead of improving his standing against Trump with the early debate, Biden is hemorrhaging support with calls for him to drop out of the race coming from liberal politicos and newspapers including the New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In response, the Biden campaign sent out a memo Saturday that said of the debate “On every metric that matters, data shows it did nothing to change the American people’s perception.”
The denial of reality was so strong a reporter for Politico, Rachel Bade, reacted with, “Are you serious?” to the memo stating, “If we do see changes in polling in the coming weeks, it will not be the first time that overblown media narratives have driven temporary dips in the polls.”
New memo from the Biden Campaign shows just how in total denial they are:
“If we do see changes in polling in the coming weeks, it will not be the first time that overblown media narratives have driven temporary dips in the polls.”
Are you serious?
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) June 29, 2024
The memo by campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillion pointed to strong post debate fundraising of $27 million, polls that showed the race essentially unchanged and a look back at the 2012 Obama campaign in which Obama was able to bounce back after losing the first debate with Republican Mitt Romney. The memo also claimed the campaign had an increase in volunteers and job applicants post debate.
The memo:
Source: NewsNation’s Connell McShane via X Twitter:
This Biden campaign memo says the debate “did not change the horse race” and Biden “won on substance.” Even if both are true, can you still work to elect a candidate if you know he can’t physically do the job? That’s the real question. pic.twitter.com/5GXhjWNsIQ
— Connell McShane (@connellmcshane) June 29, 2024
