Determined to push forward, Biden tightens his circle and grows combative

Politics; By; Carol E. Lee, Monica Alba, Mike Memoli, Julie Tsirkin and Jonathan Allen 
 
When meeting with the fellow Democrats regarding their concerns vis a vis his candidature for presidential election, President Joe Biden dedicated more than a week keenly in meetings and phone calls receiving more positive and reconciliatory message about his future plans. At times he appeared apologetic over his mediocre debate and this led to people calling on him to put on hold his re-election campaign. 
 
He was able to handle direct questions about his declining memory firmly. He only laughed a requisite advice from friends to take an IQ test or ponder on another’s suggestion that he allow a younger man to replace him in the Democratic ticket. He conceded that they have all good reason for worrying and assured them that he will prove to them that he could handle the demanding nature of a presidential campaign, and another four terms in the White House. 
 
Then he’d had enough. 
 
In the past few days, Biden has started to privately convey a new message to Democrats: The conversation regarding my future is ended, so, once again, I get impatient that you are not comprehending that. What about it is unclear, but Biden has been calling some of the key actors personally to egg them on to get the word out. 
 
“President Biden and his people must be dreaming of the plan to counter the situation,” said a senior Biden aide of this anticipation that informed the White House decision. 
 
Less than two weeks after a vociferous debate that rattled his Democratic party to its leadership, Biden wants to an end to infighting and concentrate on unseating Donald Trump. And, finally, after listening to his opponents, he is minimizing the lists of advisors to the those he has been leaning on the most – and who agree with him about the future strategy. 
 
Biden’s thinning patience for questions about his candidacy were on display as he campaigned Friday in Detroit telling a large, effusive crowd: “You anointed me the candidate, the preferred political candidate over every other person, whether it is the members of the press or the well-wishers whom you may have endowed, the political strategists and pundits or the hard-core party financiers and donors. ” 
 
“And I’m not going anywhere,” he said rather firmly, Johnson continued. 
 
Late on Saturday, he also explained to Democrats lawmakers in separate phone conversations that he finds it frustrating the fact that discussions about whether he should continue to pursue the presidency go on. 
 
“Whining goes a long way,” then, “Stay positive you are sounding defensive,” one of Biden’s aids had written on a paper and handed it to him before the call and then during the call Biden read it: (Two people in on the call confirmed Biden purposefully read it with the intention of adding comedic flair. 
 
In a later call with the moderate New Democratic Coalition, many of which are in competitive reelections, Biden at times lost his patience, sources involved in the call said. 
 
When Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. When Sullivan, the chief of staff, relayed to Biden stem cell bank of body donors’ warning that “without a major change, we are facing a loss in November,” explaining that many voters are beginning to doubt if Biden can “project strength, vigor and inspire confidence” as commander in chief through a second term, the president immediately lost his temper, said sources familiar with the call. 
 
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. The man on the call who pushed Biden to quit, has painted the president as defensive telling America,CNN’s focusing on the fact that he was defensive and the most disturbing part of the call was him stating confidently, ‘We are okay. ’ 
 
On which Smith elaborated that it is, in fact, paradoxical to most of their understanding of current facts. 
 
One person familiar with Saturday’s calls disputed that Biden was defensive, saying he proactively sought feedback from the lawmakers and told them: “Please let me know what else I should do for [you] that I am not doing: no one knows the community like you do. ” 
 
In this case, hours later the attempt was made on Trump’s life and some of the plans that the president and his aides had for the continuing of the campaign were put on hold. But on Tuesday, Biden was back on schedule, visiting Nevada for events this week concerning the Black and Latino audiences. 
 
Speaking at an event organized by the NAACP, Biden who has a penchant for Rooseveltian analogies saw similarities instead with the Harry Truman dictum that if one wants a friend in Washington, he should get a dog. 
 
“I get the idea of it after the last couple of weeks, ” he explained. 
 
'Shut it down' 
 
At the end of the first week following the debate that took place on June 27, Biden was rather passive. He addressed a public meeting the next day and did other planned fund raiser activities. Somewhat he then limited himself to some phone calls and consulting his family and his most trusted advisors. 
 
It took nearly a week said the president intensifiied his lobbying efforts with assembly democrats. He performed some of the things they wanted him to do in a bid to address their fears about his candidature including doing a ‘prime-time interview’ and holding a news conference that lasted almost to a whole hour. 
 
He got fixated on carrying on his re-election campaign and left of having a small number of trusted insiders which was reduced even further, said five people briefed on the discussions. 
 
As privately tried to parse the severity of Biden’s political situation, their discourse became precautionary about the president’s historians, two Biden associates said. 
 
Sm1 of the allies said that daily talks with Biden’s close staffers last week were more ‘reality-based’ in comparison to the ones held after the debate. The discussions were inclusive of deliberations on how Biden ‘will be seen if his presidency is characterized by a protracted standoff with his own party or defeated by an opponent to whom he asserted would bring the end of democracy in America , the two aides said. ’ 
 
It is hard to say that it reflects the President and his conversations with his advisers, White House press secretary Andrew Bates stated. 
 
Thus, by the end of the last week, the president and his team developed a strategy further, according to five insiders of the discussions. 
 
According to several Biden aides and allies, that strategy is to time out the American democracy and go with a brand new term, as mentioned above. 
 
Top Biden helpers are trying to ensure that the Democrats do not have room for shifting him out of the race. The chief Biden assistant noted that the expectation was that the ANC would turn into a moment when Democrats start centering on Trump instead of him. 
 
“The expectation, the hope is that the people will say ‘Yeah yeah well he is doing what we wanted him to do and he’s doing it right’,” the aide said. 

Another close Biden ally described the approach this way: “I mean shut it down and play out the clock. ” 
 
President’s advisors anticipated the situation in which more Democrats would stage pressuring demands for the head to suspend the campaign. But they also want to see if he can survive the period of the next week or so without either slipping up in some way or else seeing his poll numbers tank, which will see the demands for him to get out of the race die down. 
 
“The theme on the campaign is onward,” a Biden campaign official was quoted to have said. “We understand what we are up against and the tasks ahead of us, it’s not going to be easy it’s going to demand time and energy. ” 
 
It is planned that later this month the procedure for the formal nomination of the Democratic Party’s candidate for the post of President in 2024 will begin. It is believed that Biden will be nominated before the convention of the Democratic Party on August 19 in a digital call of state delegations in mid or early August. Top DNC members are anticipated to come up with the exact date in the next couple of days. 
 
Some of the president’s aides stated that some of the adversity that the campaign has confronted has in a certain extent made Biden act to stay in the race. 
 
‘It’s breathing some life into him,’ a second Biden campaign official said. 
 
However, there is also a feeling among some of the president’s assistants that there might be a readiness to reconsider if a significant event disrupts the race, three people familiar with the internal debate said. 
 
 Biden himself hinted at this during a news conference that he held last Thursday if I’m not mistaken. When questioned whether he had been tempted to change his mind on his decision to soldier on, if aides were to bring particulars to him, the latter responded thus: “No, unless they told me that there was no way I could emerge the winner…” 
 
“No one is saying that,” he added, which shows that the issue of formation of a united front against the government was not inevitably going to produce the current alignment of forces. “None of those polls say that. ” 
 
Shrinking the inner circle 

The daily 9 a. m. call among the president’s advisers continues on the directive that he’s committed to staying in the race and the question since the weekend whether what the president is doing is enough, a key development in the decision-making process is the addition of another call at 9 p. m. for the assessment on the status of the efforts for the day, as reported by a source familiar with the calls. The calls are coordinated by the White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients. 
 
And in many of the discussions about his future, Biden relies on the familiar faces and longtime advisers with whom he is most comfortable — Ricchetti, Donilon and several other White House aides; and family members, who have all told him not to quit, five sources said. Thus, he has excluded other senior-tier personnel such as Joe Biden’s campaign co-chair, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, and White House senior adviser Anita Dunn from certain interactions, these people mentioned. 
 
One of the people who described internal operations of the circle said, “it is now the smallest it has ever been”. 
 
It is true that Bates, the White House spokesperson commented in the report and said that Biden is proud of the team he had assembled a d he have not changed his circle of advisor as well. 
 
“What has actually spoken the president is being in a broad, frank talk with members of congress, governors, mayors labor conditions and advocates among others,” Bates said. 
 
One official knowledgeable about the dynamics of the inner circle by the name of Dunn has been in direct collaboration with Bruce Reed, a veteran Biden’s adviser, on The formulation of a plan on where the president would want to direct his energy in the upcoming times, inclusive of the first 100 days in case Biden wins a second term. 
 
The plan to continue the push through questions as to whether Biden should be retained on the Democratic ticket entails fanning any display of support for him while avoiding the occurrence of further desertions. 
 
Last week, for example, Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg pleaded in vain to prevent George Clooney, a legendary Democrat fundraiser, from calling on Biden to quit, which the Hollywood actor was planning to do after he gave Biden’s campaign advance warning of an uncompromising op-ed for The New York Times that he planned to write, three sources familiar with the matter said. 
 
At the same time, Biden aides had luminaries standing with him in Detroit last Friday and on Tuesday in Nevada, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. C. 
 
None of the campaign’s internal polling data since the debate shows such a change, says Biden aides. 
 
But some data that got to operatives managing re-election campaigns for swing CD’s has made Democrats a bit apprehensive and more polling data is still anticipated to be received in terms of how Democrats are faring in the House and Senate races. 
 
One Democratic strategist, who looked at recent internal polls across the several key states to defend the Senate and flip the House, said, “The president’s numbers are here slipping quickly in the swing states and districts we need. ” The strategist added that the polling data was down 5-10 points since the last polling. 
 
It must be noted that Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic operative, was quick to dismiss the lack of polling for Joe Biden stating that if there is evidence, it should be brought to light. 
 
“People have got to be a little bit careful with the data,” Rosenberg © AFP/File / Brendan Smialowski said, pointing to a 538 forecast on Friday that tipped Biden to have slightly higher november chances than Trump. “People did not change their minds in a big way – that was not the expectation most of us had on Saturday following the victory in the debate.