Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden said on Monday that if Republicans win the White House in November, a Supreme Court decision that gives presidents broad immunity from prosecution would make Trump “more emboldened to do whatever he wants.”
Biden, who was under a lot of pressure after losing the debate last week to Trump, told voters to think carefully about their choice and made it clear he wasn’t going to drop out of the race.
Biden said that the American people now had to “do what the courts should have been willing to do but will not” because of the decision made by the court’s conservative majority. This decision makes it almost certain that Trump will not be tried in Washington before the November election for his actions during the violent riot on January 6, 2021.
“The people of the United States need to decide what they think about Donald Trump’s actions.”
Biden’s attempts to reset his campaign after the debate, which scared away donors and caused a lot of anxiety among Democrats, have been a lot like his past efforts to keep the focus on Trump’s mistakes and flaws. During his short speech on Monday, he didn’t talk about or take questions about last week’s debate or his performance. This was an unusually political message from the White House.
Biden said, “I know I will respect the limits of presidential power, just like I have for the past three and a half years. But any president, even Donald Trump, will now be free to break the law.”
Biden seemed calm and sure of himself. He spoke clearly and crisply and looked tanned and well-rested. This was very different from last week’s debate, when he was often stumbling and his face was very pale. While he was arguing with Trump, the president didn’t have a teleprompter to help him with his comments about the court.
In Biden’s camp, there have been private talks about what else the president could do to fix what people saw during the debate: he gave confusing answers, trailed off, stared blankly, and spoke in a rough voice. During the talks, Biden has been asked if he should be seen in public more often through events like town halls, interviews, and press conferences, which he has mostly avoided while in office.
But most people close to him are waiting for more polls to come back before making any big changes. They want to see how bad the damage was. That’s what four Biden advisers who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity said. They were not authorised to talk about private conversations in public.
Biden’s team might not make any changes. A lot of people think or hope that this tense time will pass, especially since Biden’s family told him on Sunday at Camp David to stay in the race and keep fighting.
Campaign staff said on Monday that they had no new information to share about events. The people said Biden would keep campaigning and go to battleground states like he has been for months.
Monday, an ad called “I Know” came out. It used clips from Biden’s rally in North Carolina after the debate, where he said, “When you get knocked down, you get back up.”
In a call with reporters, Biden’s main deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks, focused on Trump. He said, “When you do see President Biden out on the trail, he will be talking about the reasons why Americans should be scared of Donald Trump, as he has been for months.”
Even before the debate, voters didn’t like that the Democratic president is 81 years old. The prime-time showdown brought up the issue in front of what may be the largest audience he will have in the four months before the election. It was shown on CNN, and more than 51 million people watched.
“I think his age played a big role, and I’m sure he can do better than what he did on Thursday night.” I thought I would see better. “I don’t think other voters did,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who worked as Director of Communications in the White House under Obama and as a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
To deal with this, she said, the campaign has been promoting Biden’s strong speech in North Carolina on Friday and keeping up its strong fundraising numbers. Palmieri also said that Biden might want to do more interviews to keep showing that the debate was different.
Their main goal should be to get him in front of the most important voters, and more interviews should help them do that. She told him, “Don’t be like Trump in your own little world.” “They’re doing the right thing, but it’s still early.”
People may now be paying more attention to Biden to see if his horrible performance in the debate was just a one-time thing or if, as he says, he is really up to the job.
An attorney named Alan Kessler works for the Biden campaign and is on the national finance team. He has spent days reassuring worried donors by telling them that the president is “lucid and strong as he’s always been.”
“I’m reassuring people as much as it’s necessary,” Kessler said.
Biden said he would be willing to do at least one interview. At a fundraiser on Saturday in East Hampton, New York, Biden said he had talked to Howard Stern, a radio host who had interviewed him in April and mostly asked him open-ended questions about his childhood.
The president told the crowd, “I had a great time on his show. I’m ready for another sit-down with Stern.” In fact, I’m going to take a chance and go back.
At the same time, the Democratic National Committee and Biden’s campaign held an evening finance call to keep the damage under control. Over the weekend, they took a call with dozens of committee members from across the country and gave them a positive view of the future. No questions were asked.
Several committee members on the weekend call—most of whom asked to remain anonymous to talk about the private conversation—said they felt like they were being asked to ignore a very serious situation.
Campaign officials say that Biden dropping out of the race and staff changes after the debate were not talked about in any way.
The time to do that is already getting shorter. The Democratic National Committee says it will make him the nominee through a “virtual roll call” before the convention starts on August 19 in Chicago. However, it is still not clear when or how that will happen.
