In the seven days that have passed since the June 27 presidential debate between Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, the Biden campaign has faced an onslaught of concerns and complaints, with calls from fellow Democrats for him to drop out, donors angry that he is not doing more to reassure voters, and advisers trying to rally behind him.
Biden and his team, recognizing that they face a narrow window to steady the situation and prevent further defections within an already anxious Democratic Party, scrambled to stage an afternoon rally in a key swing state and agreed to an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that will air in prime time Friday. He also canceled plans to address the National Education Association’s summer convention on Sunday — the result of a labor dispute involving a picket line that the president did not want to cross. His campaign is planning another event in Pennsylvania.
Overall, Friday will amount to one of the most critical days of Biden’s long political career. And for a man who has declared himself a respecter of fate and has faced both tragedy and triumph, it is a moment for him to try to demonstrate that he has the stamina for not only a grueling months-long presidential campaign but also another four-year term.
He is returning to one of the most important battleground states, a place where he narrowly won in 2020. He is expected to be joined at the rally by Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who has managed two wins in a Wisconsin that is narrowly, and often bitterly, divided.
It is Biden’s fifth trip to the state this year, and the rally in Madison will include Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and former Fitchburg mayor Frances Huntley-Cooper, who was the first elected Black mayor in Wisconsin.
But in one telling sign of the president’s current standing, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who is running her own reelection race and leads in the polls, will not be joining Biden during the trip. Instead, she is on her own preplanned tour of the state and did not alter her schedule to join the president.
Numerous aides, donors, lawmakers and others say they have seen signs of accelerated aging on Biden’s part in recent months. These people, interviewed by The Washington Post, did not say they had seen Biden stumble in private as badly as he did in the debate, and most did not question his acuity. Nonetheless, they said he has slowed noticeably in the past several months.
Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, who will join Biden at the rally, said he did not believe the dynamic of the race was changed by Biden’s performance at the debate, when he was often groping for words. A crucial set of voters has reservations about both candidates, Wikler said, and that remains the case.
“The concern that people have is, one candidate is scary, the other candidate’s old,” he said. “Either we figure out how to shift that conversation, or we slug it out for the last couple thousand votes in the handful of states that tip the electoral college balance.”
Biden is scheduled to arrive in Wisconsin early Friday afternoon, with plans to be in the state for a few hours. The ABC News interview will be taped there. The network originally had planned to air the full interview Sunday, but it announced late Wednesday that instead it would devote an hour of prime time Friday to airing the session.
Biden’s campaign said it is using the event in Wisconsin to jump-start a month of heightened activity, including a $50 million advertising campaign that will target major moments like the Olympic Games, which begin July 26, as well as counterprogramming that will take place during the Republican National Convention, which is July 15-18.
Campaign aides said the president is planning to do additional interviews in July and “can also be expected to engage in frequent off-the-cuff moments over the course of the month.” They pointed to a video of him dropping in at a Waffle House after last week’s debate.
Next week, he will host a NATO summit in Washington, which will bring more than 30 heads of state and government to the nation’s capital and include a solo news conference by Biden. The president is also planning a campaign swing through the Southwest, and he will be in Las Vegas for NAACP and UnidosUS conferences in mid-July.
For the past week, Biden’s family has been trying to bolster him and has been supportive of his staying in the race, according to four people familiar with their thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. His son Hunter has taken on a particularly close role and has been at his father’s side, helping him prepare for remarks and attending a Medal of Honor ceremony that the president hosted at the White House.
While it has raised eyebrows from some within the West Wing — Hunter Biden last month was convicted of three felony gun charges — people close to the president’s son say he is beginning to reclaim a role he has long played in his father’s political career.
Hunter Biden has been optimistic about his father’s ability to recover from the missteps of the debate and has aggressively rebuffed anyone who doubts him, according to people close to Hunter.
Members of Biden’s family recognize the rocky debate performance, and the tenuous moment, but believe that absent high-level defections or a significant drop in polling data, he will remain the Democratic nominee. They also note that critics have doubted Biden throughout his political career only for him to defy expectations, and they fully expect him to do so again, the people said.
Biden originally was scheduled to speak at the National Education Association on Sunday, but his campaign announced on Friday that he was canceling after the union representing NEA staff went on a three-day strike and established a picket line outside the Philadelphia gathering to protest what the union says are unfair labor practices.
“President Biden is a fierce supporter of unions, and he won’t cross a picket line,” said campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt. She said Biden still plans to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend and that details about his schedule would be announced later.
Biden has spoken to the NEA multiple times and is a strong supporter of the union. The NEA has given him enthusiastic support for years. Canceling the speech removes an opportunity to speak to a key constituency at a moment when the president badly needs to rally his supporters.
In response to the strike, the NEA, the nation’s largest union, canceled the convention altogether, and a spokesman said that any necessary business would be transacted through alternative means.
In a statement, Robin McLean, president of the National Education Association Staff Organization, said the contract dispute relates to outsourcing of work to contractors and NEA’s removal of holiday pay.
“NEA would rather cancel a multi-million-dollar convention than comply with labor law. NEA members should question where their hard-earned dues dollars are being used — and wasted,” McLean said in a statement.
In a statement, a spokesman for the NEA who declined to be identified by name said the union has bargained in good faith.
Laura Meckler and Patrick Marley contributed to this report.
