If President Joe Biden thought his campaign advisers could calm the concerns of Democratic senators with one private meeting, it won’t be that simple.
“Some of my concerns are allayed,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters as he left Senate Democrats’ Thursday meeting with top Biden officials. “Some others have been deepened.”
The midday gathering with President Joe Biden’s senior advisers, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, as well as his campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, did little to move the needle, senators and aides told NOTUS. The presentation was reportedly low on specifics — they shared no polling data — at a time when Biden’s loudest critics are saying they badly need to know how the president can actually win.
Sen. Peter Welch, the first senator to call for Biden to withdraw his campaign, said he was unmoved by team Biden’s presentation, telling reporters afterward, “I’m where I’m at.”
Few senators leaving the meeting offered details to the press, with many rushing to catch their flights out of town. Three senators up for reelection this cycle, Sens. Sherrod Brown, Tim Kaine and Jon Tester, weren’t there.
(NOTUS spotted Tester with an aide — who said he had a conflict during the meeting — driving past the Democratic Senate Campaign offices, where the meeting was held.)
Inside the room, Blumenthal described the exchange as “frank.” Democrats reportedly pressed the officials on Biden’s lackluster public engagement since the debate. Sen. Joe Manchin described the meeting vaguely. “They got an awful lot of questions in,” he said of his colleagues. “And they got a lot of questions answered.”
In the end, the senators who have supported Biden came out of the meeting still backing him. Those who have expressed skepticism weren’t dispelled of the feeling.
“My feeling is still the same — and this is not a reflection on that meeting. My belief is that the president can win, but he’s got to be able to go out and answer voters’ concerns. He’s got to be able to talk to voters directly over the next few days,” Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters after the meeting.
“I don’t think he’s done enough, but I think he can have that conversation with an electorate,” he continued.
The Biden campaign was perhaps dealt its biggest blow in the headlines Thursday, as the meeting was ongoing. Just hours before Biden’s first solo press conference since November, The New York Times reported that some Biden advisers don’t believe the president can win. Over a dozen Democratic lawmakers have called on him to step aside.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters Biden’s campaign has an “aggressive plan laid out.” Yet when NOTUS pressed about whether he can win, she replied just, “I know he can win Michigan.”
Senate Democratic candidate Elissa Slotkin told donors Wednesday that Biden is trailing Trump in Michigan, though Gov. Gretchen Whitmer insists Democrats can carry the battleground state.
“A significant majority of the Democratic senators feel that the president’s not going to be able to win,” an unnamed Senate Democrat told Punchbowl News after the meeting.
Even as dissatisfied senators veil their concerns behind anonymous quotes, a few allies are backing Biden. Top Biden surrogate Sen. Chris Coons told Politico he “stood up hard for my friend, our president, Joe Biden.
Another Biden supporter and fellow octogenarian, Sen. Bernie Sanders, told reporters that though he believes Biden can beat Trump, he has concerns about Democratic campaign messaging.
“I think the Biden campaign has gotta be stronger and clear,” Sanders said. “Not only in defending their own record, but in creating an agenda for the future, especially for the needs of the working class.”
Before the meeting — announced Wednesday afternoon and scheduled at Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s request — senators were already venting that it was long overdue. Sen. Michael Bennet, who told his colleagues earlier this week that he doesn’t think Biden can win, told reporters Wednesday he wished the meeting had happened “10 days ago.”
Biden’s personal absence did him no favors either. For Blumenthal’s concerns to be allayed, he needs to see Biden walking the walk.
“Nobody can allay those concerns. Only he can do it,” Blumenthal said. “He has to do it himself by being out there, taking the fight to Donald Trump. He has to do it personally.”
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Riley Rogerson is a reporter at NOTUS. Casey Murray and Katherine Swartz are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows. Reese Gorman and Haley Byrd Wilt, who are NOTUS reporters, contributed to this report.