What Joe Biden must do to win after debate debacle

EXCLUSIVE: “Why is Joe Biden not on 60 minutes tonight? Why wasn't he there? Meet the press This morning?”

These are the questions an exasperated major Hollywood donor was asking Sunday, as the scope of the disastrous June 27 presidential debate continued to expand despite the White House and the campaign's efforts to act as if it was just a bump in the road to re-election.

“They need to stop blaming others, the president needs to show people that he is up to the task,” added the donor, who attended the fundraiser with Vice President Kamala Harris at Rob and Michele Reiner Saturday evening. “They need to put it on TV now!” »

Expressing impatience at best and anger at worst over the campaign and the 81-year-old Biden's weak, meandering confrontation with a surprisingly targeted and unsurprising lie spread by Donald Trump on CNN on Thursday, a number of Deep-pocketed Tinseltown contributors on both coasts tell Deadline that face time with the Veep and Biden himself over the weekend offered only a modicum of comfort, to put it kindly.

“It’s all in the teleprompter, don’t worry,” one New York donor said Sunday. “I’m really worried!” » A number of donors from the Big Apple and City of Angels said they were taking a “wait and see” approach, as Deadline reported on June 28.

Some donors are more circumspect, talking privately to the campaign. Others, less so. “Let’s see what the plan is this week, see how he’s going to turn this around,” said a prominent television producer and generally reliable Democratic donor. “I want to see them swarm the area.”

Amidst calls from New York Times Editorial committee and columnists, New Yorker When editor David Remnick and others call on the embattled Biden to step aside in service to the nation as quickly as possible, a repeated response is that if the current Camp David incumbent wants to stay in the race, he must adopt a radically new position.

“Biden should sit down with George Stephanopoulos live for an hour this week to start,” says one well-connected producer. “Make it event viewing, be honest.”

“Campaign speeches and hand-picked crowds are no longer enough. We’re going to lose this business if things don’t change soon,” the film and television veteran continued. “If he can’t, it’s a shame to say it, (but) we need someone who can take on Trump and his entourage.”

What was particularly frustrating for one leading Hollywood supporter was the Biden team’s blaming of pundits and others for the debate’s fallout. “We all saw what we saw,” the supporter said.

Already very popular with certain media, an interview with the American president after a big blunder or a crisis is not a totally original idea. It worked several times for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. However, compared to his predecessors, Biden has done relatively little.

Citing data from the White House Transition Project, The Washington Post reported in April that Biden had conducted 118 one-on-one media interviews as of April 30, compared to 97 for Trump at that point in his term and 71 for Obama. The White House has often pushed back on such numbers, noting that Biden has held frequent informal question-and-answer sessions with the media — 570 — compared to Trump's 623 at this point in his term. As White Secretary of State Karine Jean-Pierre told the Deadline ElectionLine podcast in April, POTUS values ​​the power and reach of local television to reach voters on networks.

None of the networks have announced any pending interviews with Biden.

Spokespeople for ABC News, CNN and CBS News had no update, and an NBC News spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The president last sat down for an interview with ABC News' David Muir in Normandy, France, earlier this month during commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the landings.

The argument we hear now that donors want an in-depth interview is that it would be a kind of event television in its own right, not fleeting moments from the campaign trail. Biden could explain what happened and why he had such a bad night.

In fact, several Hollywood politicians, many of whom were at Harris’ fundraiser Saturday, believe the best way for President Biden to get out of this mess if he wants to have a chance against Trump is to be more like his vice president. “He needs to get on CNN with (Anderson) Cooper. I hate to say it, he needs to get on Fox with Hannity like Newsom did, and give more than he gets,” another donor said. “Show people he can answer the tough questions.”

In clear damage control mode, the vice president suddenly found himself in post-debate coverage on June 27. Noting that the president had a “slow start” but finished strong, Harris received praise from Anderson Cooper, who told the vice president: “Not one person on stage tonight made an argument as coherent as you just made it.”

A somewhat familiar face on Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox and Biden's adopted political son, California Gov. Gavin Newsom offered a glimpse of a possible 2028 White House run when he wiped the floor with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a Hannity-hosted debate on Nov. 30, 2023.

As of now, while some media outlets are reporting a come-to-Jesus moment among family members at the presidential retreat (which Biden’s aides deny), Biden’s overall schedule for next week has not been made public. Gathered with his family for a portrait photo by Annie Leibovitz, the president will remain at Camp David through Monday. He will return to the White House around 8:20 p.m. ET on July 1, the press office confirmed late in the day. With the Independence Day holiday approaching this week, Biden will visit a D.C. emergency operations center and hold a fundraiser on Tuesday, a Medal of Honor ceremony on Wednesday and a barbecue with military personnel on Independence Day. Nothing else has been announced.

Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Donald Trump's communications director, wrote on X/Twitter that over the weekend he went to President Biden's fundraiser in East Hampton and did a pretty good job of reading the teleprompter today and meeting people. However, that won't be enough to prove to the American people that he's ready for another four years.

He pointed to a scathing email that author Whitney Tilson sent to leading Democrats, which included four ideas for dealing with the post-debate fallout. They include holding an hour-long news conference at the White House and continuing them every week until after the election; doing an interview with 60 minutes this week; meeting with the editorial board of The New York Times; and make another appearance on a late-night show, as he did with Seth Meyers earlier this year.

All of these recommendations came with a sense of urgency that Biden needed to act quickly to put things right.

In line with much of what Tilson wrote, a longtime political operative told Deadline that Biden is expected to hold one-on-one interviews and town hall meetings every week leading up to the Democratic convention in late August in Chicago. “More events with regular people, that’s where Joe Biden was great,” the operative added, noting the contrast with Trump and his Mar-a-Lago sycophants.

Additionally, Sunday night is the end-of-quarter deadline for campaign contributions, and Biden/Harris could face further embarrassment if they fail significantly again against the Trump machine.

Ultimately, the debate fiasco proved to be a cash cow for the Biden/Harris campaign. The re-election campaign raised $27 million from June 27-28, according to a June 29 memo sent to influential donors by campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon. However, that $27 million wipes out what the campaign could have raised if the president had had a truly strong performance.

One recipient of O'Malley Dillion's correspondence called her “tone deaf.” Another insider dismissed the memo as part of a “don't believe what you see strategy,” citing social media posts from top Democratic donor John Morgan.

“Joe Biden had a chance to make his case and he blew it,” one major West LA donor said over the weekend. “He has a small window of time to make his case directly to the American public again, and I hope he gives it another chance.”