Since his disastrous debate, President Biden has sat down with ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos, held an unscripted live news conference and appeared at several campaign rallies — all in an attempt to quiet the voices calling for him to step down from the White House race.
By most accounts, Biden has held his own, though his stumbles and gaffes since the debate have drawn more scrutiny than they might otherwise have.
Despite his best efforts, the hits have kept coming for Biden, with no end in sight.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested he should reconsider his decision to stay in the race, even though he has insisted the die is cast. Hollywood superstar George Clooney, a major Democratic donor, openly called on Biden to step aside.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries Thursday night made what may be the first of many pilgrimages to the White House to huddle with Biden behind closed doors.
Given all that, the question swirling around Biden right now is whether there’s anything he can do to bring his party fully behind him as he heads into a crucial stretch of the campaign.
The 81-year-old leader will surely keep grinding it out on the campaign trail and doing more interviews even though that strategy hasn’t shut down his critics.
Biden’s best ally may be time — and the realities of the political calendar.
The Republican National Convention is looming this coming week. After that is done, there are just three weeks before Democrats gather in Chicago to nominate their own standard bearer.
Despite all the whispers and the growing list of doubters, the tight timeline could be a big reason to stick with Biden.
“Democrats can’t [continue] with this level of uncertainty swirling around their presumptive nominee. The time crunch to make a decisive move to stick with or replace Biden has financial and political implications,” said Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor. “All the while, Republicans are keeping their powder dry and moving to gather support from independents.”
So if Biden can prevent the dam of his support from breaking for a few more days, he is likely to experience a rally-round-our-guy affect from both the RNC and from the realization that the time to change horses may have passed.
The RNC in particular couldn’t come at a better time for Biden.
After two weeks of relentless Democratic debate, the news cycle will be dominated for several days by the RNC, including the unveiling of Trump’s vice presidential running mate and his triumphant acceptance speech.
Trump’s return to center stage is sure to unify Democrats and may remind tens of millions of apolitical Americans why they voted against him twice already.
Democratic strategist Tom Watson predicted the sight of Trump will instantly galvanize Democrats and also tamp down the opposition to Biden.
“The convention will stop Democratic hysteria cold and refocus our party on the real threat,” Watson said.
Biden has logged a series of workmanlike appearances in the two weeks since many Americans were stunned by his disjointed and often incoherent performance at the debate with Trump.
He came out swinging at several campaign rallies, including energetic appearances at a Black church in Philadelphia and in the Democratic stronghold of Madison, Wisc.
On Friday evening, he again put in a decent showing at an hourlong mostly unscripted press conference at the end of a NATO summit.
He did slip up by mistakenly referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” and called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “President Putin.”
He otherwise got good grades for a forceful performance, which capped what most analysts called a successful summit.
Biden supporters note that Trump regularly makes similar slip-ups and has mixed up Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley and confused Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
The former president, who is 78, also often makes bizarre rambling remarks, including his oft-repeated campaign riff praising fictional movie serial killer Hannibal Lecter and musing about being attacked by killer sharks.
Polls have painted a mixed picture of the race, with most showing Trump opening up a small but significant lead since the debate. Most battleground state surveys show the GOP candidate with an edge.
So what happens next?
As the GOP gathers to crown Trump, Biden is planning to give a speech Monday marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential library in Austin, Texas.
He will do a sit-down interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, which the network says it will air unedited and in full that evening.
After that, Biden heads to Las Vegas where he will address conventions of the NAACP and Unidos, a major Latino coalition. He also plans interviews with Black and Hispanic media outlets.
Then the countdown will start to the Democratic National Convention in mid-August, where the party will officially nominate Biden, or dump him in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else.
After the DNC, it would become nearly impossible to switch candidates.
Despite all the nay-sayers, Biden holds the vast majority of the pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention and therefore has the power to claim the nomination unless he decides otherwise.
If Biden were to step aside, most analysts expect him to back Harris, who would be a strong favorite to win the nomination, perhaps by acclamation.
But nothing would be guaranteed and some party insiders believe there could be a fierce fight for the nomination if Biden pulls out.
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