The Biden campaign sent an email Sunday accusing Democrats and the media of “bedwetting” after they panicked over the president’s abysmal debate performance, as the campaign sought to mitigate damage among supporters.
In a fundraising email, deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty insisted that President Biden will be the Democrats’ presumptive nominee and urged them to support him.
“The bedwetting brigade is calling for Joe Biden to ‘drop out.’ That is the best possible way for Donald Trump to win and us to lose,” Mr. Flaherty wrote in the email.
The email included seven things to “tell your friends after the debate” and listed four things donors could do to drum up support for Mr. Biden.
“Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, period. End of story,” the email said. “And if he were to drop out, it would lead to weeks of chaos, internal food fighting and a bunch of candidates limp into a brutal floor fight at the convention,” Mr. Flaherty wrote.
Mr. Flaherty cited a post-debate poll of hypothetical matchups against Mr. Trump showing that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris still poll better than Democratic alternatives.
The poll from Data for Progress, a left-wing advocacy group, showed that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris each would get a 45% share of the vote against Mr. Trump, who got 48% in each matchup.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer all would get 44%, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro polled at 43% against Mr. Trump.
All the surveyed Democrats lost to Mr. Trump by 2 or 3 percentage points, essentially a statistical wash.
“And at the end of the day, we’d switch to candidates who would, according to the polls, be less likely to win than Joe Biden — the only person ever to defeat Donald Trump,” Mr. Flaherty wrote.
However, election statistician Nate Silver immediately pushed back on Mr. Flaherty’s email in a post on X, noting that such a small edge over less-known people is actually a bad sign.
“Literally all of the Democrats in this poll are actually doing [as well as] Biden despite being much less well-known, which generally tends to depress your polling,” Mr. Silver posted. “That this is the best talking point they can come up with indicates how poor their argument is.”
Mr. Flaherty acknowledged Mr. Biden’s poor showing in the debate, calling it “rough.” But he said that former President Donald Trump did worse, because voters saw that he is “a threat to the country.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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