Team Biden’s fightback but could trigger a revolt

Biden’s not for turning – but he may yet be turned. In the four days since the US president’s disastrous debate performance his closest advisors have pursued a three-pronged strategy: fight back in public, reassure donors in private and quietly let it be known that if anyone was to blame for last Thursday night, it wasn’t him. There are two problems with this approach: it looks unlikely to persuade the public, and it could backfire with the Democratic party. Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have joined top party officials in an urgent circling of wagons. “Bad debates happen. Trust me, I know,” Obama posted. Biden’s family, in Camp David last night, hinted he’d been a victim of botched debate prep and bad makeup. But a virtual party leaders’ meeting on Saturday wasn’t “based in reality”, one person on the call said (the chat function was switched off and there was no Q&A); and large numbers of Democratic donors and ex-Biden supporters who are now convinced they need a new candidate will be on a vital call this evening. Some say a delegate revolt at the convention in August is on the cards.

Prominent in the “nothing to see here” team is the First Lady, Jill Biden, who told her husband after the debate “we’re not going to let 90 minutes define the four years you’ve had as president”. The team is talking up Trump’s serial lies during the debate and Biden’s healthy fundraising since. But scores of younger Democratic activists and ex-White House staffers are having none of it. “Telling people they didn’t see what they saw is not the way to respond to this,” Ben Rhodes, a former senior Obama aide, told the WaPo.

In principle Biden would have to reject his party’s nomination and release his pledge delegates to start the process of finding a replacement. In practice, the spectre of a second Trump presidency has shunted American democracy into uncharted territory where all bets are off.

Congress is not in session this week on account of Independence Day. It may go down in history as the week when Democrats had to ask themselves if they were still capable of independent thought – or if, like the Republicans, they were in thrall to one man. A new CBS poll says only 27 per cent of voters think Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president.