The Biden campaign’s frantic 48 hours to “fix” the disastrous debate in Atlanta

The last hours have been absolutely frantic for the Biden campaign.

Following the debate in Atlanta, Georgia, the presidential team had to make countless calls with allies and organizing a wave of campaign events to control the damage generated by Biden’s poor performance against Donald Trump.

According to the New York Times, the first 48 hours were particularly difficult for Biden’s campaign, whose officials began work early Friday morning, just hours after the debate, amid intense progressive media criticism of Biden.

“In the early hours of Friday morning, shortly after President Biden left the stage after a disastrous debate, his campaign chairwoman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, acknowledged in a series of private calls with prominent supporters that the night had gone badly but urged them not to overreact,” they can read in the pages of the New York Times.

Later that day, top White House advisers called and Biden leader, Jeff Zientshad a call with the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumerwho briefed him on the temperature and Democratic lawmakers’ concerns about Biden’s candidacy.

In the afternoon, the Biden campaign swapped its weekly all-staff call for a virtual chat to organize a damage control strategy and “dispel” no doubt in campaign offices in Wilmington, Delaware and beyond, explained the New York Times.

The media explained that those responsible for the campaign had to “pressure and implore anxious Democratic lawmakers, surrogates, activists and donors to stand with the president.”

In the middle of the calls, the campaign held a total of seven events in four different statesOne of them, in South Carolina, went particularly viral and made national headlines. with Biden acknowledging his poor performance in the debatesbut trying to put Trump in the spotlight. He explained that he was always able to tell “the truth” and distinguish “right from wrong.”

Now Biden, exhausted by the marathon day, took a break with a family reunion at Camp David. The president arrived Saturday night and will be joined by first lady Jill Biden, as well as Biden’s children and grandchildren. This mini-retreat will likely be the moment when the final decision will be made on whether Biden will continue or decline his candidacy, with advice from his family, which is often essential in the major decisions of his political career.

With all the uncertainty surrounding Biden and his career, the president has so far garnered public support from leading Democratic voices, such as past presidents. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Additionally, one of the most named substitutes, the governor of California Gavin Newsom, spoke out in support of Biden on television networks, calling for the nomination to be withdrawn.

Likewise, so far, no Democratic elected official has publicly broken with Biden. On the contrary, some even supported him by criticizing the national media which pushed for a decline in the candidacy.

Regardless, the New York Times pointed out that the Biden campaign’s massive efforts to try to settle the debate demonstrate “the extent of the damage Mr. Biden has done to his reelection campaign in just 90 minutes.”

“His campaign has been criticized for being insular and pushy, so the burst of activity signaled that the fallout from the debate had turned into a full-blown crisis that has thrust those in his orbit into a frenzied battle mode,” the NYT said.

The New York Daily reported that some Democrats were “quietly” debating ways to run other candidates, but senior Biden officials have said and tried to convince almost everyone that there is no viable alternative and that Democrats should focus on the “threat” posed by Trump.

According to the NYT, the main advisers were Jeff Zients, Bruce Reed, Anita Dunn and Steve Ricchetiwho had to call a substantial list of congressional leaders, major donors and activistsThese advisers promised that Biden would prove he could be forceful enough during the rest of the campaign.

While the NYT, whose editorial board called for Biden’s resignation, deemed the campaign’s darkest hours to be over, the president and his team have yet to suffer the biggest blow: the impact of major national polls after the debate.

The campaign’s feeling is that there is nothing more they can do to prevent Biden’s performance from having a direct impact on the polls, thereby giving Donald Trump more momentum.