It may have been a Saturday on a long holiday weekend, and the occasion the opening of yet another field office for the Biden-Harris campaign in Georgia. But the Decatur event drew a rowdy, standing-room-only crowd that spilled out the front door, its more than 150 Democrats breaking out chants of “let’s go Joe” and “yes he can” as local surrogates took turns at the microphone.
The event was a signal, at least from the party faithful in deep-blue DeKalb County, that they were sticking by President Joe Biden even as he has struggled to tamp down concerns about his fitness to run for a second term in the aftermath of his rocky debate performance last month.
Nationally, a growing chorus of party insiders and a smaller group of current and former elected officials has been calling on the 81-year-old president withdraw from the race.
But they were nowhere to be found in DeKalb Saturday. Speaker after speaker extolled Biden’s accomplishments while contrasting them with what a second Donald Trump administration could look like.
“The stakes were high before, and they’re even higher now. Our democracy is on the line,” said Karen Davenport, vice chair of DeKalb Democrats.
“I believe in Joe,” said state Rep. Angela Moore, D-Stonecrest. “Joe has never given up on us, I don’t think we should give up on Joe.”
Jittery nerves remain
Despite the enthusiasm at the Decatur event, the post-debate landscape among Georgia Democrats remains mostly unchanged. Party leaders remain unflinchingly behind him. But some of his loyalists concede he’s done little to reassure jittery nerves. To his critics, the damage has already been done, despite Biden’s post-debate public appearances and a defiant 22-minute interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday evening.
“This interview did not do anything to move party players. If you supported Biden staying in before the interview, you saw reasons to support your position. If you wanted Biden to exit before the interview, you saw reasons to support your position,” said Fred Hicks, a veteran political strategist.
“Perhaps this is the worst possible outcome for Democrats — ambiguity,” Hicks added. “I think we can all agree that if this Joe Biden had appeared on the debate stage, we would not be right here right now.”
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Several senior Georgia Democrats said privately the ABC News interview at least helped contain the fallout. Some indicated they were still in wait-and-see mode as he plans more events before taking the drastic step of calling on a sitting president to step aside.
Several polls taken after the debate have shown Trump widening his lead against Biden. A New York Times/Siena College survey released on Monday put Biden’s approval rating at 36%.
Some Democrats were quietly pumping up Vice President Kamala Harris, casting her as a younger change candidate who can invigorate the party’s base and lead the party’s efforts to reinstate abortion rights protections after Roe v. Wade was reversed.
State Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Gwinnett Democrat who has long criticized Biden’s pro-Israel approach to its war with Hamas in Gaza, said young voters have told her they “don’t feel excited about this year.”
“The polls may be more accurate than we think. My hope is those who make decisions will hear these concerns and course correct before November so we can win this,” said Romman, the state’s only Palestinian-American elected official.
‘Very, very tricky’
To many party insiders, deciding whether to take a side is deeply personal.
Sarah Riggs Amico, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2018, is a founding member of a coalition of donors, civic leaders and executives founded during Trump’s presidency to protect the institutions of democracy.
But she notably didn’t join more than 160 other members of the group who signed a letter urging Biden to “withdraw from being a candidate for reelection for the sake of our democracy and the future of our nation.”
She told the AJC it’s “very, very tricky territory of a pro-democracy, nonpartisan group to push changing the top of a partisan ticket that was duly elected by a democratic primary electorate that was open to all voters and potential challengers.”
Biden’s allies have said any discussion of a replacement is moot, and the president told Stephanopoulos that it would take the “Almighty” intervening to keep him out of the race. Party rules insulate Biden, who locked up nearly 99% of the party’s delegates, from outside challenges.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
At the Decatur field office opening, the Biden campaign’s 15th in Georgia, U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson said “it doesn’t make sense to change courses in the middle of the stream” and noted the difficultly of having to rebuild a get-out-the-vote apparatus around a new candidate on such short notice. The Biden campaign has already hired 75 people to work on the ground in Georgia.
Still, there were new signs of efforts to pressure Biden to withdraw. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was set to discuss Biden’s candidacy with congressional Democrats this weekend.
And The Washington Post reported that Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is trying to assemble a group of Democratic senators to press Biden to leave the race. U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Biden allies, aren’t expected to participate.
‘He’s a fighter’
Johnson said reporting about Democratic blowback on Capitol Hill was overblown.
“What we have, in my humble opinion, is a media-driven crisis,” said the Lithonia Democrat. “....I’ve talked with my colleagues in Congress and I know that we’re not panicked.”
Johnson said he’d been up close with Biden recently and spoken with him .
“He is not in cognitive decline,” he said of the president. “He has his full (faculties) and he’s very much aware and on top of everything that’s happening in his administration.”
Internal fissures are nothing to gloss over. In a state as competitive as Georgia, even a small number of defectors could doom Biden. DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond who was among those welcomed Biden before the Atlanta debate last week, said he hasn’t lost faith.
“There’s one thing that I know about President Biden: He’s a fighter,” he said after the ABC interview. “You should never count him out. He’s old but, most importantly, he is honest, hard-working and he loves our nation.”
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
He added: “America loves the underdog, and I believe that he will emerge from this debate debacle stronger and not weaker.”
Caroline Sigman of Decatur said she was concerned about Biden’s debate performance but felt reassured by his other appearances since then. She said she trusts his word that he’s ready and able to serve.
“I think that Biden can self-assess and that he’s got enough good people around him who will tell him if they think that he is off,” said Sigman, who was at the Decatur event.
Rhonda Morrison of Stone Mountain offered a similar assessment at the field office opening.
“If he says he’s up for the job then I’m willing to stick with him,” she said.
And U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the chair of the Democratic Party, said she was confident Biden has helped repair the damage from his disastrous showdown with Trump.
“My president did not shine on that debate stage. And it was troublesome,” she said. “But what he did was what the American story was all about. He got back up and he fought. He fought for this country. He fought for his right to stay in this race. And we’re going to stand behind him.”
