Advisers to President Joe Biden and Democratic strategists are revealing concerns about the campaign’s direction and leadership with only months to go before the November presidential election.
A Democratic strategist who regularly communicates with the Biden campaign said he doesn’t know what plan Biden’s inner circle has to try to defeat Trump — if any exists.
“It is unclear to many of us watching from the outside whether the president and his core team realize how dire the situation is right now, and whether they even have a plan to fix it,” said the strategist to news agency Axios. “That is scary.”
Some advisers feel pressure not to be vocal in meetings, particularly when in the presence of Joe Biden’s longest-serving and most trusted aides.
“Even for those close to the center, there is a hesitance to raise skepticism or doubt about the current path for fear of being viewed as disloyal,” said an anonymous official. “There is not a discussion that a change of course is needed.”
Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff who resigned last year, told Axios he firmly believed in Mike Donilon, one of Biden’s key advisers.
“In Mike, I trust,” said Klain.
Some advisers for Biden disputed the claims of Democratic strategists and officials who said they were doubtful of the Biden campaign’s plan for the November election.
“These people have clearly not heard from Mike or anyone on the team the president’s detailed case for re-election,” said the advisers.
Biden’s polling in a nosedive
As the 2024 presidential race continues, President Biden is polling low with numerous demographic groups.
A network poll aggregate found support for President Biden among reliably Democratic-voting Black voters dwindling, decreasing to 70% in 2024 from 86% in 2020. Meanwhile, Trump has cut into Biden’s coalition, according to recent polling, tripling his support from Black voters over the past four years, from 7% in 2020 to 21% in 2024.
In the past week, Biden has received negative polling news in a state the Democratic Party has not lost in 20 years.
So far, polls have shown the results of the 2020 rematch for the White House will be tight, with the pair in a statistical dead heat or holding small leads in several surveys.
However, according to firm co/efficient polling, Trump and Biden are now tied in Virginia. This state hasn’t backed a Republican for president since 2004, with former President George W. Bush.
According to a recent survey of 851 likely voters, 41 percent would vote for Joe Biden, and 41 percent would vote for Trump. An additional 12 percent remain undecided, and seven percent would vote for a candidate from a third party like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The poll was conducted between June 11 and 12. The margin of error is +/-3.36 percent.
The findings suggest Biden is losing support in Virginia. In 2020, he won the state with 54.15% of the vote by a margin of 10.2 percent, which marked the best performance for a Democrat presidential candidate since 1944 and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
