Biden plans Dem outreach as members dread down-ballot drag
The president will seek to reassure Hill leaders as rank-and-file members call for him to withdraw from the election and consider his impact on their own races.

First Things First
Congressional Democrats are on a mission to wrestle back control of the House and keep the Senate against a Republican Party salivating at the possibility of enacting former President Donald Trump’s policy agenda with a governing trifecta this November.
This already formidable assignment was complicated by Joe Biden's awful performance at last week’s first presidential debate in Atlanta, which ignited a crisis of confidence among Hill Democrats and could imperil his pursuit of a second term.
The deepening fissures between the Biden administration, the president’s reelection campaign and the Hill Democrats he worked with during the first two years of his presidency to deliver a historic legislative record are the result of a statesman who has relied on a small coterie of relatives and advisers to guide his political instincts.
This insular approach to decision-making was fine until it called into question whether Biden’s debate performance and the White House’s low-key response would spoil Democrats’ fortunes this fall.
“I’m not going to pretend to be a super-smart strategy person, but there is a simple, straightforward playbook for addressing concerns about the debate performance,” a senior House Democratic aide told me this afternoon. “And the only reason for not executing [it] is because the candidate is not capable.”
The White House maintains that the debate performance is the product of a cold-induced bad night for Biden—not an indication of a more severe condition his handlers have been shielding from the press, his Hill allies and the American people.
Aides say Biden is far from the first incumbent president to have a bad first debate. They argued that public appearances immediately following the debate at a watch party and a local Waffle House showed Biden still has enough juice to sustain him until he’s 86 years old, the age he’d be at the end of a second term.
It’s those same public appearances White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referenced to explain why Biden hadn’t talked to the top two Democrats on Capitol Hill—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.)—while the First Son Hunter Biden is among those advising the president on the path forward.
“The president was on the road for two-and-a-half days, did four states. His advisors, high-level White House officials, were talking to congressional members, as some of you have reported, over the past couple of days. I think that's important,” Jean-Pierre said. “They have regularly engaged not just with congressional members with governors with mayors. And then there’s the campaign that does it on a political level. They’ve had a regular calls. Now, this week, the president is going to take some time and talk to those congressional members.”
As for Hunter’s role in the damage control: “This is a holiday week, Fourth of July. He spent time with his family at Camp David. Hunter came back with him and walked with him into that meeting, speech prep. He ended up spending time with his dad and his family that night. That is basically what happened,” Jean-Pierre explained.
While Schumer and Jeffries have stood by Biden in the aftermath, some rank-and-file Democrats have tried another tack.
Case in point: Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) became the first Democratic member to call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential election.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw,” Doggett, who, at 77 years is four years younger than Biden and has served in Congress since 1995. “I respectfully call on him to do so.”
Mike Quigley, who replaced US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel in Congress in 2009 when Emanuel became former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, said on CNN this morning that it was Biden’s decision on his future. The Illinois congressman also raised concerns about the down-ballot implications of the president’s debate performance.
“It’s his decision,” he said. “I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts not just his race but all of the other races coming in November.”
The Biden campaign’s theory of the case against Trump in 2020 and now is that the former president is an existential threat to democracy. In fact, this argument, with a promise to protect and expand reproductive freedom, is the foundation of the Democrats’ message.
That’s why it was interesting to see Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) not only dismiss Trump as a menace to America’s governing institutions in an op-ed for his local paper but also predict the former president will win in November.
“Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system,” Golden wrote. “This election is about the economy, not democracy. And when it comes to our economy, our Congress matters far more than who occupies the White House.”
FWIW, Golden is a vulnerable Democrat in an R+6 district whose political brand benefits from and whose political future depends on sprinting away from Biden.
The White House is taking the blowback in stride though.
“That’s something about the Democratic Party that we really respect. It is a big-tent party. Many people are going to have their opinions and we are going to have our disagreements and that is what is important,” Jean-Pierre said of Doggett’s statement. “We really respect other people’s opinions and thoughts. I think that’s what makes this party is different than the other side.”
She also claimed Biden didn’t take the criticism personally, even if it came from within his own party.
“This is not a president that’s about his personal politics,” Jean-Pierre added. “He doesn’t care only about himself. That is not what this president is all about.”
In the Know
○ ● ● ● The White House announced several updates to President Biden’s public schedule as he works to restore confidence in Democratic voters and elected officials who fear he’s mentally unfit for a second term after his debate performance last week. The president will campaign in Wisconsin on Friday and sit down for an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos from the campaign trail. (Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), who’s in a tough reelection campaign of her own, will not appear with Biden, instead opting to hold her own events throughout the state.)
He will then go to Philadelphia on Sunday and hold a rare solo press conference next week during the NATO Summit in Washington. ABC will air a first look at the Stephanopoulos interview on Friday evening, with portions airing on Saturday and Sunday. The extended interview will air on Sunday and Monday mornings.
● ○ ● ● CNN released a new poll that shows former President Trump leading President Biden 49–43% in a head-to-head matchup. Trump leads Vice President Harris by two points (47-45%).
What could alarm the Biden campaign the most is the 10 points the president trails the presumptive Republican nominee with independents (44-34%). Harris leads Trump with the same group 43-40% and is plus-29 with voters of color over Trump to Biden’s +21.
● ● ○ ● House Democratic leadership endorsed Cori Bush for reelection. The move lends the two-term member some institutional heft as she defends a challenge from St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell for the eastern Missouri seat.
Bush is expected to be the next target of the pro-Israel group AIPAC’s deep political spending as it works to unseat another outspoken pro-Palestinian progressive of color after Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) lost his primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer last week.
“Cori has shown up for the people of St. Louis in the fight for reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention and affordable housing,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a joint statement. “We stand together to endorse Cori Bush for re-election as we collectively work hard to make life better for everyday Americans and battle the corrosive extreme MAGA Republican agenda.”
Bush, who became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Missouri in 2020 when she defeated a 20-year incumbent who succeeded his dad, who served in Congress for more than three decades, said she was proud to receive the endorsement.
“They know, like I know, how critical it is to remove these far-right extremists from power in Congress,” she said. “With their support, I know we’re going to win our race in August, take back the House in November, and continue to deliver for the people and St. Louis.”
A source close to the Bush campaign told me in January that the congresswoman and leadership had engaged in conversations around a top-three endorsement. Jeffries told reporters last week that he expected his leadership team to support Bush, as is the case with all House Democrats running for reelection.
“We have a process to discuss the manner in which any endorsements are rolled out and presented to the communities that our members are privileged to represent,” he said. “That process is ongoing right now for Representative Bush and several other members who will face the voters in August.”
Bush has focused on her personal story to champion her advocacy for abortion rights, affordable housing and police accountability while framing Bell as a proxy for far-right special interests to buy her seat, which sits in Missouri’s first congressional district.
The primary is August 6. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index, the deep-blue district is D+27. President Biden won it by more than 60 points in 2020.
● ● ● ○ The Biden administration announced it completed the sale of one million barrels of gas from a regional oil reserve in the Northeast. The announcement comes as a record 70 million Americans are expected to travel this week, including more than 60 million by car, a nine percent increase from before the pandemic.
Today’s national gas price is $3.50, a three-cent increase from last week, per AAA. But prices are down four cents from a month and a year ago. The White House said prices at the pump have dipped $1.50 below their peak after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Airfares are down six percent over the last year and below pre-pandemic prices and a White House official said flight cancellations are 1.4 percent this year—close to the lowest rate in over a decade. Nearly three million people took flights last week, and four of the seven busiest travel days occurred in the same span.
“This release will help lower prices at the pump, building on other actions by President Biden,” White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard said in a statement. “While congressional Republicans haven’t offered a single proposal to lower costs, President Biden is fighting every day for hardworking families like the ones he grew up with in Scranton.”
Make me smarter. Did I miss something in this post? Is there something else I should know? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch.
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