The blame game is in full force after Thursday’s presidential debate.
The Biden family were pointing fingers at President Joe Biden’s top campaign advisers this weekend for his poor performance at the debate, Politico reported.
The disgruntled family members are now pushing for the president to either fire or demote those people.
However, according to three people privy to the content of the family’s conversations, it was not clear if Biden would follow through on that advice.
Those three people were not directly part of those conversations and talked about them in exchange for anonymity.
The family put forth a litany of complaints on who Biden was prepped for the debate. These include too much time in the prepping to defend his record rather when he should have been ready to talk about his second-term plans; and he was over-worked and did not get enough rest.
Several staffers were blamed — Anita Dunn, a senior adviser; her husband, Bob Bauer, the president’s attorney; and Ron Klain, former chief of staff who was in charge of debate prep.
“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,” Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said.
A senior Biden aide agreed with Munoz, stating it was “not true” that any blame was given towards Dunn, Bauer and Klain.
Blame was also given to others people and factors involved in the debate.
This includes the president was ill, he was over-prepared and the CNN moderators did not fact-check former President Donald Trump’s statements.
But as the crisis continued into a third day, the finger-pointing has turned inward toward some of Biden’s closest advisers.
The Biden family is expected to discuss the best way to assuage the Democrats’ doubts he should continue to seek a second term.
Biden seemed to rebound on the campaign trail over the weekend.
But on the trail, he was able to use teleprompters, something not allowed in the debate.
Biden himself noted the debate did not go as planned.
“I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he said at a campaign rally, adding he “would not be running again if I did not believe with all my heart and soul that I can do this job.”
A CBS News/YouGov poll published showed that 72% of registered voters do not believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to be president — up from 65% earlier this month.
Democrats were split on whether he should run for president — 46% of registered Democratic voters said he should not compared to 54% who say he should.
At a fundraiser Friday night, Jill Biden said that after the debate, the president said, “Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.”
The first lady responded with support for her husband.
“And I said, ‘Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president,’” she said, per reporters present.
