Milwaukee — As noted in today’s Morning Jolt, President Biden’s interview with Lester Holt went badly. Since Saturday, the news cycle has been dominated by the near assassination of Donald Trump and the start of the GOP convention. That may well be to Biden’s advantage. If the Republicans here really wanted to stick it to Biden, they’d cancel all the speeches for the next two nights and just run raw video of the president stumbling and mumbling in his recent appearances.
As I type this, Biden is wrapping up at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas, shouting a lot. It’s the sort of performance that Biden fans will point to, insisting that “he’s back” and that the debate represented just one bad night. Sure, his energy level is up — he finished at 2:40 local time.
The bubble around Biden is getting smaller and tighter, as the New York Times reports today:
Mr. Biden has not consulted directly with the pollsters on his 500-person campaign team about the state of the race against Donald J. Trump, but has instead relied on Mike Donilon, a longtime friend, former pollster and Biden-campaign messaging guru, to summarize the numbers, with regular memos and numerous daily phone calls.
The ever-buzzing phone of Steve Ricchetti, a close counselor to Mr. Biden since his vice presidency, is the main conduit between concerned lawmakers and the president.
Mr. Biden speaks frequently to his son Hunter Biden, who calls and texts the president and first lady multiple times a day to see how they are coping with the onslaught of scrutiny surrounding his father’s health, mental fitness and final presidential campaign.
Jill Biden, Hunter Biden, Mike Donilon, Steve Richetti. Later in the article, Bruce Reed, Anita Dunn, former chief of staff Ron Klain, and Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, are mentioned as part of the inner inner circle.
Do you see anyone on that list of names who’s even remotely likely to say, “Joe, we love you, but it’s time to hang it up?” Of course Biden thinks everyone wants him to stay in the race. The people he talks to the most are the people who would lose the most if he chose to not serve another term.
The Times also notes:
The Biden campaign had not conducted an extensive survey since the debate until Monday of last week, when it began fielding a poll in seven swing states, according to three people familiar with the campaign operations.
You can’t report new bad results if you don’t conduct any new polls.