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'We can't catch a break.' How the Biden crisis looks from the inside
NPR ^ | July 18, 2024 | Tamara Keith

Posted on 07/19/2024 4:06:21 AM PDT by DoodleBob

Hit by a rolling series of punches — the turmoil after President Biden's disastrous debate, the drip-drip-drip of damaging leaks from congressional allies, and now a campaign-stalling case of COVID — people who work inside the Biden campaign are discouraged and uncertain about what lies ahead.

Harris hits the campaign trail in North Carolina as Biden isolates for COVID "We can't catch a break,” a Biden adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity to frankly describe private conversations.

Ever since Biden faltered in his debate three weeks ago against former President Donald Trump, the bad news just keeps coming — much of it from unnamed sources who are supposed to be allies of their team, the adviser said.

Not enough momentum 'to get us back on solid footing'

While there have been some positive moments for the president since the debate, “They haven't been enough to get us back on solid footing," the adviser said.

Biden had been gaining a bit of a momentum, giving energetic rallies in three "Blue Wall" states, culminating in a fired-up retooled stump speech in Detroit on Friday, where supporters chanted, "Don't you quit!"

But Biden's private meetings with top congressional leaders last week were sobering, and then there were the leaks from gatherings with rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers worried that Biden’s political woes will be toxic for their own races.

"In moments of crisis, you really get to know a lot about people," the adviser said.

Biden, a long-time senator, is pragmatic about the political calculations that lawmakers are making, the adviser said.

Top Democrats in Washington are carefully avoiding denying reports that they have called for President Biden to step aside as the party's nominee for president.

But the president bristled in one meeting last weekend when Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., suggested, in a respectful tone, that Americans were losing sleep because they were worried about the national security risks associated with an aging president.

Biden replied: "'Listen: if you have to come out against me, do whatever you need to do. But don't you dare say that Americans don't feel safe because of this,’" the adviser recounted.

This adviser said Biden showed no signs during that meeting and others of any cracks in his resolve to stay in the race — and said it’s not yet clear whether the pile-up of woes has reached a tipping point for the president.

In a July 6 letter, obtained by NPR on Thursday, Rep. Jamie Raskin recounted Biden's achievements, and used a metaphor about a 2003 baseball loss faced by Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez when he stayed in the game too long.

“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics," Raskin warned.

'What campaign team is going to rise from the ashes?'

Perhaps there is still a way for Democrats to unite behind a concise message, and Biden, the adviser said. But now, even Democrats who back Biden find themselves parsing his speeches and interviews for trips and flubs. His trademark gaffes are now are seen in a new light.

But if Biden drops out, that opens the door to a compressed “Hunger Games” race within the party for choosing a new leader, the adviser said. There's little time, and will be little organization.

While the adviser sees strong future candidates on the Democratic bench, they have not been battle-tested. The adviser noted that some of the best and brightest Republican prospects fell flat when they went against Trump.

"What campaign team is going to rise from the ashes?" the adviser asked.

“It's gonna be ugly. it's gonna be dirty. It's gonna be messy.”


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biden; despair; potus2024
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To: All

Donald Trump takes a bullet and stands up pumping his fist and yelling “Fight Fight Fight”. JoeDementia gets a cold and says I can’t take any more, I can’t catch a break. And goes back to the basement and eats ice cream and dreams of smelling little girls hair.


21 posted on 07/19/2024 4:52:58 AM PDT by BipolarBob (First I was called a big fat lair and then showed a certain Lake of Respect.)
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To: DoodleBob

article “not battle tested”.

Shapiro had his shot—and he missed.


22 posted on 07/19/2024 4:56:21 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: All
“This is the dire strait for Joe Biden right now.”

<>CNN analyst John King points to the map:
<>Trump is already assured of getting the electoral votes needed.
<>Trump could even get 330 electorals (270 needed to win)
<>There's 16 weeks to Election Day.
<>In sixteen weeks we count the votes.
<>"It's tough to change a map like this in that amount of time."

23 posted on 07/19/2024 4:58:23 AM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray : Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name . )
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To: DoodleBob

Good post.

I spent a lot of time in DC on business over the years—and for most folks career comes first—and everything else is a distant second.

At the end of the day the Swamp is mostly just pigs at the trough.


24 posted on 07/19/2024 4:59:06 AM PDT by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: DoodleBob

Biteme is only dropping out because they are set to lose with him as the candidate. If only Romney had dropped out. We knew he would lose too, because he is a useless dork with his head up his own ass.


25 posted on 07/19/2024 5:01:00 AM PDT by anton
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To: ComputerGuy

“ While there have been some positive moments for the president since the debate...”

…and the time he finished his ice cream cone without dribbling on his shirt.


26 posted on 07/19/2024 5:02:01 AM PDT by albie
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To: DoodleBob

Have Bill Clinton and Barack Obama each write down three names other than Biden’s.

Let the DNC run a poll.

Let them speak for 30 minutes each in front of the convention, based on poll result order, the best polling result candidate against Trump speaking last.

Have repeated convention votes, the lowest voter getter getting dropped until only one person is left.


27 posted on 07/19/2024 5:02:46 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (*** Help Trump, fund Republican candidates: https://ballotpedia.org/U.S._House_battlegrounds,_2024)
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To: The Duke
Calling Lloyd Austin “that black man” would have been enough to doom any conservative candidate.

That's not the first time he's forgotten Austin's name. After his disastrous debate, the plan was to have Biden doing interviews and speeches in front of sympathetic groups to push the narrative that his debate performance was just "one bad night." It didn't work. Biden's recent interviews with Lester Holt and BET did nothing to improve his image. In both interviews he came across as a confused old man. With this Covid diagnosis, it gives him the excuse to avoid any more face to face interviews and campaign appearances.

28 posted on 07/19/2024 5:02:57 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: FLT-bird

Precisely the democrats have no one who can win and they know it which is why we got Biden in 20 and again on 24.

The idea they have someone they can stick in in at the last minute and win is laughable. It would take a superstar to do that, not only that but a superstars superstar… and the Dems had no one.. if they did they would have run them instead of Biden.

Replacing Biden if it happens is about trying to save the down ballot from a massacre. If they replace him it is a tacit admission the White House is lost, period.


29 posted on 07/19/2024 5:06:27 AM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: DoodleBob

Here is a PC, Joe.

Type up a five-page paper why you should be President after your current term.


30 posted on 07/19/2024 5:08:30 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (*** Help Trump, fund Republican candidates: https://ballotpedia.org/U.S._House_battlegrounds,_2024)
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To: Liz

The City States are not red and thus incapable of salvaging the election for the progressives, even with a massive fraud factor


31 posted on 07/19/2024 5:08:46 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Hamascide is required in totality)
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To: DoodleBob

Biden had been gaining a bit of a momentum, giving energetic rallies in three “Blue Wall” states, culminating in a fired-up retooled stump speech in Detroit on Friday, where supporters chanted, “Don’t you quit!”

The article’s LOL moment. “Energetic” “blue wall” . Pathetic.


32 posted on 07/19/2024 5:10:54 AM PDT by TalBlack (I We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: DoodleBob

>> There’s little time, and will be little organization... “It’s gonna be ugly. it’s gonna be dirty. It’s gonna be messy.”

This has been my (largely answered) prayer, that the LORD sow chaos and confusion in the enemy camp. In the demonic principality that is the Democrat Party — in the newsrooms of their colluding propagandists — in the offices and meeting rooms of the government agencies the DemonRats have corrupted, where evil and tyranny reigns, may there be messy failure and disorganization everywhere, until they either see the light and repent or break down in total defeat.


33 posted on 07/19/2024 5:10:59 AM PDT by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: HamiltonJay

“The idea they have someone they can stick in in at the last minute and win is laughable.”

Obama scurried up to the top rather easily.


34 posted on 07/19/2024 5:14:49 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (*** Help Trump, fund Republican candidates: https://ballotpedia.org/U.S._House_battlegrounds,_2024)
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To: bert

The fraud might have worked like it did back in 2020 when his polls were fairly decent....
but Biden’s 2024 polling is abysmal making it hard to believe he “Won” all those votes.


35 posted on 07/19/2024 5:17:00 AM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray : Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name . )
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To: dforest

“You chose to steal and election in 2020 running that old coot. “

Their rage and anger direct them. They can never pull back and reassess, regroup. They have chained themselves to a corpse, trapped themselves.


36 posted on 07/19/2024 5:28:13 AM PDT by TalBlack (I We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: DoodleBob

“It’s gonna be ugly. it’s gonna be dirty. It’s gonna be messy.”

And I can’t wait.

L


37 posted on 07/19/2024 5:30:53 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: DoodleBob

Biden “allegedly” getting covid IS a break!

It’s The best way to keep him away from screwing up even more.


38 posted on 07/19/2024 5:36:05 AM PDT by airborne (Thank you Rush for helping me find FreeRepublic! )
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To: maddog55

isolates for COVID = Jill isolated him from the cameras to get a few more weeks of power for herself.


39 posted on 07/19/2024 5:40:14 AM PDT by bgill
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To: DoodleBob

“We can’t catch a break,”

…yep. You missed.


40 posted on 07/19/2024 5:52:41 AM PDT by albie
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