Biden campaign sends all-staff memo hoping to calm post-debate concerns
President Biden’s campaign on Wednesday sent out a fresh all-staff memo in an attempt to calm concerns about his chances of being re-elected following last week’s heavily criticized debate performance.
The memo, obtained by Fox News, highlights internal campaign polling that shows a still-close race with former President Trump.
"We are going to see a few polls come out today and we want you all to hear from us on what we know internally and what we expect to come externally," the memo reads. "Polls are a snapshot in time and we should all expect them to continue to fluctuate -- it will take a few weeks, not a few days, to get a full picture of the race."
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The memo, which was signed by campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez, showcases internal battleground state polling before and after the debate, revealing that Biden dropped by half a percentage point over that period.
The memo pointed to a potential upcoming The New York Times/Siena College poll, "which is likely to show a slightly larger swing in the race."
"We should all keep in mind that, just last week, the NYT themselves acknowledged that they are often a polling outlier," the memo reads.
Biden, who at age 81 is the oldest president in the nation's history, is facing the roughest stretch of his bid for a second term in the White House. This, after his halting delivery and stumbling answers at the debate, sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party donors for Biden to step aside as the party's 2024 standard-bearer.
Additionally, in the past 24 hours, a small but increasing number of House Democrats have also urged the president to end his re-election bid.
However, Biden's campaign has repeatedly insisted that the president has no intention of dropping out of the race.
"The president is in this race to win it," principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said Wednesday in a CNN interview.
Two public opinion national polls conducted after the debate and released on Tuesday contained red flags for Biden.
According to a CNN poll, 75% of voters and 56% of Democratic-aligned voters said the Democratic Party would have a better shot at keeping control of the presidency if Biden is replaced as the party's standard-bearer.
The survey suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris performs slightly better than Biden in a hypothetical matchup with Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee.
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Trump holds a six-point – 49%-43% – lead over Biden among registered voters nationwide, which is unchanged from CNN's previous poll in April. It is consistent with Trump's lead in CNN polling dating back to last autumn.
However, the vice president trails Trump by just two points – 47%-45% – in a hypothetical matchup, according to the poll.
The CNN poll's release came hours after a USA Today/Suffolk University survey also conducted Friday through Sunday indicated Trump at 41% support and Biden at 38% among registered voters nationwide.
The Democratic incumbent in the White House and his Republican predecessor were tied at 37% in the previous USA Today/Suffolk University poll, which was conducted in May.
While Trump's advantage in the new survey was within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, there were other warning signs for Biden.
Forty-one percent of Democrats questioned in the poll said they wanted Biden replaced at the top of the Democratic Party ticket.
Only 14% of Republicans surveyed said they would like to see Trump replaced at the top of the GOP ticket.
"There's no question the debate sent out shock waves across the political landscape," Suffolk Political Research Center Director David Paleologos said. "Democrats in the poll are offering tough love to President Biden by saying to him, 'You've served us well, but try to see yourself last Thursday night through our eyes. Hold your head up high, it's time to go.'"
The release of the memo comes hours before Biden is scheduled to huddle with Democratic governors and congressional leaders.
The meeting comes after Democrat governors on Monday huddled on a conference call to discuss the fallout from the debate.
Monday's call was organized by Democratic Governors Association Chair Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. Sources told Fox News that the Biden campaign was aware of the call ahead of time.
A number of the governors, including some who have been speculated as potential replacements on the extreme long-shot chance that Biden would step away from his re-election bid, have acknowledged the president's debate performance was shaky but remained committed to supporting the president.
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