“I don’t think anyone necessarily thinks he’s fit to be president, but I’m happy to run against him,” Trump Jr. said in response to a viewer question after the news conference. “I think he did fine enough to be able to stay in it.”
Several Trump allies said they viewed Biden’s Thursday night performance as the best of both worlds: not bad enough to make him leave immediately, but not good enough to assuage fears. Some of Trump’s advisers have plotted privately on whether they can do anything to help keep Biden in the race, believing he will be much easier to beat.
“Just enough to keep him alive,” said one senior Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. “Every day that Joe Biden is talking is a good day for us. We want him to keep on talking.”
Trump himself, in a radio interview Friday, said the news conference was “not the end” for Biden as some Democrats speculated it could be.
It is a somewhat awkward position for the GOP, which has spent years arguing that the 81-year-old Biden is unfit to be president. Now, those critiques are dovetailing with some Democratic calls for Biden to leave the contest over his age — and be replaced by Vice President Harris or an even lesser-known entity.
Trump Jr. said Thursday night that Harris is “not nearly as defined” as a candidate, calling it a “big deal” that could complicate the race.
“It makes it impossible for him to be on offense hitting us. No one is talking about democracy or abortion,” said another Trump adviser, who like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
This adviser said an ideal situation for Trump would be weeks of infighting, with Biden staying on the ticket.
A third adviser said Trump was thinking of announcing his vice-presidential pick sooner but has not wanted to distract from Biden’s problems. “We have not wanted to make news,” the person said. This person added that, unfortunately, the convention would turn attention back to Trump and the Republicans. “We would love for this to go a few more weeks,” the adviser said.
“The Democrats are in the process of melting down over Joe Biden,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley told The Washington Post. “It’s a circular firing squad that’s gone on for 15 days.”
Biden continued to insist at the news conference and a campaign event on Friday that he is sticking with his campaign, though Democrats have been joining calls for him to step aside. Some Democrats, like Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), have openly looked forward to a Harris nomination if Biden heeds the calls to end his campaign.
“She’s vetted, tested, and has been Democrats’ strongest messenger throughout this campaign,” Huffman said Thursday on X. “She’s next up if we need her, and we might.”
Recent polling has suggested Harris would perform similarly against Trump. A Post average of post-debate polls found that Trump leads Biden by 1.5 percentage points, while Trump leads Harris by one percentage point — well within the range of sampling error even combining multiple surveys.
Biden is set to be formally nominated during a virtual roll call that is expected to take place before the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago.
Trump has expressed confidence he can win regardless of his Democratic opponent and has expanded attacks on Harris as Democrats weigh Biden’s political future. But Trump has also made comments that indicate a preference to continue facing Biden in the November election.
“Crooked Joe Biden should ignore his many critics and move forward, with alacrity and strength, with his powerful and far reaching campaign,” Trump said in one sarcastic post last week on his Truth Social platform.
More recently, after actor George Clooney called on Biden to drop out of the race on Wednesday, Trump jumped into the fray and questioned Clooney’s judgment. In a Truth Social post, Trump called Clooney a “fake movie actor” and told him to “get out of politics.”
In one scene captured in a Friday story by Politico, one of Trump’s allies in the House, Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.), was described as “plead[ing] into a reporter’s phone” for Biden to remain on the ticket. Referring to first lady Jill Biden, Nehls said, “Jill, keep fighting for your husband, babe.”
Biden’s campaign dismissed the enthusiasm from Trump supporters.
“The eyes of the world were on the NATO summit this week, where Joe Biden has strengthened, expanded and led the NATO alliance against Putin’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and unwarranted aggression,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said Friday. “The world is not concerned about the punditry of the Trump campaign, what it is worried about is Trump telling Putin to do whatever the hell he wants to Europe.”
Not all Trump allies are speaking openly about keeping Biden as the Democratic nominee.
“I don’t think it matters,” North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), a potential vice-presidential candidate, said Friday on Fox News. “President Trump is so strong he will beat whoever they put on the ticket because whoever they put on the ticket is going to be supporting these same policies.”
Other Republicans have ramped up attacks on Harris as they contemplate whether she will replace Biden. That includes Trump and his campaign, which sent an email to supporters Friday arguing that Harris is “Biden 2.0.”
“She was the copilot on some of Biden’s most egregious failures,” the email said.
The Post reported Thursday that Democratic donors and strategists were starting an advertising and research effort to defend Harris against the increasing attacks.
Even before Biden’s widely panned debate performance, the Heritage Foundation, the influential conservative think tank, was preparing for the possibility that Democrats could try to replace Biden as their nominee. The think tank released a memo in April indicating how it would legally challenge efforts to swap out Biden in certain states.
Mike Howell, executive director of Heritage’s Oversight Project, said the group does “not have a preferred candidate.”
“Our preference is for a president with mental capacity and an administration that is honest about the current one’s complete implosion,” Howell said in a statement. “We are very concerned about their adherence to state laws regarding a potential substitution or withdrawal. We aren’t going to sit back and let them make it up as they go.”
