Biden’s family encourages him to stay in the race as they debate whether top advisers should be fired

CNN
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Joe Biden’s family on Sunday encouraged the president to stay in the 2024 race and privately discussed whether top aides should be fired following Biden’s surprisingly weak debate performance that threw his campaign into turmoil.

Biden’s family, including first lady Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden and his grandchildren, gathered at Camp David for a previously scheduled meeting and implored the president to keep fighting in his reelection bid, Biden aides told CNN. One aide described the family members as offering their “unequivocal support.”

The family — clearly frustrated with the team that prepared President Biden ahead of his alarming debate with former President Donald Trump — discussed whether any of Biden’s top advisers should be fired and whether changes should be made to campaign staff, one said. counselor.

Biden, however, is known for being loyal and protective of his close advisers, and does not like firing aides. Until Sunday, it didn’t appear that any major team changes were approaching.

The admiration and support Biden’s family showed the president on Sunday mirrored the first lady’s effusive public praise for her husband in recent days.

The family gathering at the presidential retreat came as Biden and his campaign face an avalanche of calls for the president to step aside following Thursday’s presidential debate on CNN. Discussions also focused on how members of the Biden clan could help the president rather than whether he should reconsider his candidacy, one of the aides said.

Biden is avidly collecting data — anecdotal evidence and public polling — but is awaiting a broader round of Democratic campaign polls and surveys this week, aides said, preparing for the expected slide of support in battleground states. Aides preemptively blamed harsh media coverage for any drop rather than Biden’s own performance.

The shock of the CNN debate is still sinking in for many, with the president and those close to him in the early stages of processing the immediate fallout. The family’s view — that Biden should keep fighting — could change in the coming days if the downward spiral continues and if the president becomes convinced that exiting the race would avoid dragging Democrats down this fall.

The opinion of Biden’s family would be crucial in determining his political future — even more so than the president’s famous inner circle of top advisers.

Those advisers are now under intense scrutiny, with party insiders openly questioning how they allowed the president to take the stage last week to confront Donald Trump knowing what they should have known. Biden’s team spent nearly a full week holed up at Camp David, trying to prepare the president for whatever scenario he might face inside CNN’s Atlanta studio.

Biden and his family gathered on Sunday for a long-planned photo shoot with renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz. Senior advisers insisted to CNN on Saturday that the meeting was not intended to discuss whether the president would stay in the race.

Angst over some key members of Biden’s team has begun to spill over into public opinion. Florida attorney John Morgan, one of the Democratic Party’s most prolific and prominent donors, singled out senior adviser Anita Dunn and her husband, Bob Bauer, who is Biden’s personal lawyer.

“Biden has long been deceived by the value of Anita Dunn and her husband. They need to go…TODAY,” Morgan wrote on X on Sunday.

The White House declined to comment on Morgan’s post.

This story and headline have been updated with additional information.