The US president’s closest relatives have blamed his top aides for his failure in the debate against Donald Trump, according to the broadcaster
The family of US President Joe Biden has urged him not to end his campaign for reelection despite his debacle in the debate with Republican challenger Donald Trump, CNN has reported.
Biden’s performance in his first face-off with Trump on Thursday was widely viewed as a disaster, with CNN describing it as “stunningly poor” in its article on Monday. The 81-year-old appeared frail and confused, struggling to finish his sentences and mixing up words. Public calls have been made for the Democrats to replace the president on their ticket for the November 5 election, with media reports claiming that the idea is backed by some of the party’s major donors.
On Sunday, Biden’s family, including First Lady Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden and their grandchildren, convened at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for a previously scheduled photo shoot with legendary photographer, Annie Leibovitz.
Senior Biden advisers who talked to CNN stressed that discussing the future of the president’s campaign was not the intended goal of the meeting. But the question was brought up, with family members offering their “unequivocal support” for Biden remaining in the race, according to one adviser.
Another adviser told the broadcaster that Biden’s closest relatives were “clearly frustrated” with the team that prepared the president for the debate. They considered the possibility of sacking some of his top aides and making other staffing changes to the campaign, the source said.
The discussions at Camp David were reported by several other outlets, with Politico’s sources saying that the focus on the staff allowed the family to overlook Biden’s own shortcomings during the debate. According to the outlet, senior adviser Anita Dunn, her husband and the president’s attorney Bob Bauer, who played Trump in rehearsals at Camp David, as well as former chief of staff Ron Klain, who oversaw preparations, faced the harshest criticism from Biden’s relatives.
Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement that “the aides who prepped the president have been with him for years, often decades, seeing him through victories and challenges. He maintains strong confidence in them.”
READ MORE: Major Democratic donors weighing Biden’s future – NYT
Publicly, the president’s team explained his failure in the debate by saying he had a cold, was over-prepared, and that CNN moderators did not fact-check claims by Trump. When asked by journalists last week if Biden was planning to step aside, his campaign replied “of course not.”
