EXCLUSIVE: “Because it is not Joe Biden in 60 minutes tonight? Why wasn’t he there? Meet the Press this morning?”
Those were the questions one exasperated Hollywood donor had Sunday when the explosion occurred. The president’s disastrous performance in the June 27 debate It continued to expand despite the efforts of the White House and the campaign to act as if it were just a bump in the road to re-election.
“They have to stop blaming other people, the president has to show people that he is up to the job,” the donor said. who attended the fundraiser with Vice President Kamala Harris at Rob and Michele Reiner’s on Saturday night, He added. “They have to put it on TV, now!”
Expressing impatience at best and anger at worst with the 81-year-old Biden’s weak-voiced, meandering campaign and confrontation with a surprisingly focused and unsurprisingly spreading falsehood about Donald Trump in CNN On Thursday, several deep-pocketed Tinseltown contributors on both coasts told Deadline that meeting with the Veep and Biden himself over the weekend has offered minimal reassurance, to put it kindly.
“It’s all by teleprompter, there’s no need to worry,” said one New York donor on Sunday. “I’m very worried!” Donors in both the Big Apple and the City of Angels said they are taking a “wait and see” approach, as Deadline reported on June 28.
President Joe Biden and Elton John speak onstage at the dedication ceremony for the Stonewall National Memorial Visitor Center in New York City on June 28. Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Stonewall National Memorial Visitor Center, a program of Pride Live
Some donors are being more cautious and speaking to the campaign privately. Others, not so much. “Let’s see what the plan is this week, let’s see how he turns this around,” said a prominent small-screen showrunner and generally reliable Democratic donor. “I want to see them flood the area.”
Amid calls from the New York Times Editorial Board and columnists, New Yorker Editor David Remnick and others so that Biden, in trouble, can retire as soon as possible to serve the nation, One answer that is repeated is that if the current incumbent of Camp David wants to remain in the race, he must adopt a drastically new stance.
“For starters, Biden should sit down with George Stephanopoulos live for an hour this week,” says one well-connected producer. “Let it be event visualization, let’s be honest.”
“Campaign speeches, carefully selected crowds are no longer enough. We are going to lose this if things don’t change quickly,” the Film and Television veteran continued. “If he can’t do it, it’s a shame to say, (but) we need someone who can take on Trump and his group.”
What was especially frustrating for one prominent Hollywood supporter was the Biden team’s blaming of pundits and others for the post-debate fallout. “We all saw what we saw,” the supporter said.
An interview with the president, which has already attracted attention in certain media circles, is not an entirely original idea after a major blunder or crisis. It worked with Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton on more than one occasion. However, compared to his predecessors, Biden has done relatively few of them.
Citing data from the White House Transition Project, Washington Post reported in April that Biden had conducted 118 one-on-one interviews with the media through April 30, compared to 97 for Trump at that point in his term and 71 for Obama. The White House has often pushed back on numbers like these, noting that Biden has conducted frequent informal question-and-answer sessions with the media (570) compared to Trump’s 623 at this point in his term. As Secretary of State Karine Jean-Pierre said on the Deadline ElectionLine podcast in Aprill, POTUS values the power and reach of local television to reach voters through networks.
Neither network has announced any type of pending interview with Biden.
Spokespeople for ABC News, CNN and CBS News had no update, and a spokesperson for NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The president last attended an interview with ABC News’ David Muir in Normandy, France, earlier this month, during commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The idea we now hear donors asking for an in-depth interview is that it would be a kind of television event in itself, not fleeting moments on the campaign trail. Biden would be able to explain what happened and why he had such a bad night.
Indeed, several Hollywood politicians, many of whom were at Harris’ fundraiser on Saturday, believe that the best way out of this mess for President Biden, if he wants to have a fighting chance against Trump, is to be more like his vice president. “He needs to go on CNN with (Anderson) Cooper. I hate to say it, he needs to go on Fox with Hannity like Newsom did and give more than he takes,” says another donor. “Show people he can answer the tough questions.”
In clear damage control mode, The vice president suddenly appeared all over the post-debate coverage on June 27.By emphasizing that the president got off to a “slow start” but finished strong, Harris earned praise from people like Anderson Cooper, who told the vice president: “No person on that stage tonight made the argument as coherently as you just did.”
A somewhat familiar face at Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox, and Biden’s adopted political son, the governor of California. Gavin Newsom offered a preview of a possible White House run in 2028 when wiped the floor with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a debate hosted by Hannity November 30, 2023.
At this moment, some media are reporting a moment of ecstasy among family members at the presidential retreat. (something Biden’s aides deny)Joe Biden’s overall schedule for the coming week has not been made public. The president will meet with his family for a photo-op by Annie Leibovitz and remain at Camp David through Monday. He will return to the White House around 8:20 p.m. ET on July 1, the Press Office confirmed late today. With the Independence Day holiday approaching this week, Biden will visit a D.C. Emergency Operations Center and fundraiser on Tuesday, a Medal of Honor ceremony on Wednesday, and a barbecue with military service members on Independence Day. Nothing else has been announced.
Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Donald Trump’s communications director, wrote on meeting with people. However, that will not be enough to demonstrate to the American people that it can last another four years.”
She pointed to a pushy email that author Whitney Tilson has been sending to top Democrats, which includes four ideas for dealing with the post-debate fallout. They include holding a one-hour press conference at the White House and continuing it each week until after the election; doing an interview with 60 minutes This week; meeting with the editorial board of The New York Times; and make another late-night show appearance, like he did with Seth Meyers earlier this year.
All of the recommendations came with a sense of urgency, that Biden had to act quickly to correct course.
In line with much of what Tilson wrote, a veteran political operative told Deadline that Biden should be doing one-on-one interviews and town hall meetings every week until the Democratic convention in late August in Chicago. “More events with regular people — that’s where Joe Biden used to excel,” the operative added, noting the contrast with Trump and his Mar-a-Lago courtiers.
On top of that, Sunday night is the end-of-quarter deadline for campaign contributions, and Biden/Harris may face another embarrassment if they again fall significantly short of the Trump machine.
As far as the final outcome goes, the debate debacle turned out to be a cash cow for the Biden/Harris campaign. The reelection effort raised $27 million from June 27-28, according to a June 29 memo sent to influential donors by campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon. That $27 million, however, negates what the campaign could have raised had the president put in a truly strong showing.
A recipient of O’Malley Dillion’s correspondence called her “tone deaf.” Another insider dismissed the memo as part of a “don’t believe your eyes” strategy, citing social media posts by top Democratic donor John Morgan.
“Joe Biden had the opportunity to make his case and he blew it,” a major West LA donor who signs checks exclaimed this weekend. “He has a small window to present his case again directly to the American public and I hope they give him another chance.”