As Biden spoke on that call, a letter announcing his intentions went online. The chief of staff followed up with Zoom calls for the Cabinet and those in the White House with the rank of assistant to the president.
“There is so much more to do — and as President Biden says, ‘There is nothing America can’t do — if we do it together,’” Zients wrote to the entire White House team at 2:26 p.m.
There were whispers that it was coming. But until it happened, many of those working for the campaign and the White House just assumed that something had to happen — a pivot, a recognition of reality — but they didn’t know what, when or how. The map was expanding in the wrong direction. The party had turned. The money was drying up. The polls in must-win states had gone from bad to worse.
This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen Democratic insiders from the campaign, the White House and Capitol Hill, many of whom spoke anonymously to describe private conversations.
Biden spent the weekend with a small group of family members and advisers in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware: White House adviser Steve Ricchetti, senior campaign adviser Mike Donilon, deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal. They were all at the president’s vacation home.
Everyone moved on, publicly swearing that none of that was happening and telling those who worked for them not to quit. O’Malley Dillon had set that marker Friday, when she appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and abruptly silenced the growing speculation that his departure was imminent. The feedback from door-to-door campaign workers was good, she said. The campaign was humming. The president was determined.
“He’s not going anywhere,” she said.
That was followed by a tense phone call about high-dollar donors on Friday afternoon that infuriated many of the party’s biggest donors. Harris called in en route, joining the Zoom a few minutes late — bragging about the campaign’s efforts in Michigan and Wisconsin, expressing confidence in victory, then logging off, according to a person on the call. All questions from donors went unanswered.
Donors were frustrated because “it was like we had no eyes and couldn’t see what was happening,” said another person in the conversation.
It was a bold and definitive stance. Yet it was seen by many in Democratic politics less as a final word and more as an extension of the president’s due. This decision was always Biden’s. From the first days of the crisis, people close to Biden reached out to those who made their displeasure public.
He deserved “grace,” was their message. Give him his space.
That set off weeks of mixed signals amid clearly deteriorating conditions. Ricchetti and Donilon were both firing on all cylinders at the Republican convention through Friday, a person familiar with the conversations said. Ricchetti arrived at the house Friday. Donilon arrived Saturday. They met Saturday night, according to another person familiar with the events. Inside the campaign, the polls had deteriorated further late last week. The president, who was battling COVID, was briefed on the data.
“The polls they got recently were very sobering for them,” this person said. “They wanted to stop the bleeding, give him time to think about what he wanted to say. … It was so relentless. Every day it was a new person.”
The campaign continued to plan travel and fundraisers for Biden on Saturday. A fundraising email for the Biden-Harris ticket was emailed Sunday, even after Biden released his letter announcing his decision.
Biden had nearly made up his mind by Saturday night, the person with knowledge of the events said. He went to bed then. When he woke up, he did one more colonoscopy before continuing.
Biden made his decision certain that he had no viable path forward. But he remained angry at Democratic lawmakers and party strategists who had publicly stepped forward to oust him.
One congressman said Biden was “deeply betrayed and angry” at all the people he considered friends. The member said Biden was receptive to arguments about polls and his legacy, but that it took him some time and that most aides were not informed.
Much of the senior campaign leadership had long since accepted the harsh reality. But people continued to speak on his behalf, routinely condemning the anonymous sources who described what was happening.
A congressman said Biden had “honest conversations” with his team over the weekend about the polls, which appeared to be getting worse by the day. Democrats on Capitol Hill were also unsettled. Dozens of lawmakers had delayed the release, both out of respect for the president and fear of the political risks it would pose. But many were discussing the best way forward in the coming week if Biden did not withdraw from the race before the weekend, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
But they were not prepared to bow to his will. Democrats in the Senate — where Biden served for 36 years — were being extra cautious, but had begun discussing whether to come forward as a group or one by one, or whether to have some senators meet privately with Biden and urge him to resign or warn him that they would go public if he did not address their concerns, the people said.
Several of his aides said Sunday they were angry at being kept in the dark after being told Friday and Saturday to keep fighting for his candidacy. Some even worked Sunday morning, preparing for the morning shows and heading back to Wilmington for the week.
It was unclear Sunday afternoon when exactly Biden would address the nation directly. He was still suffering from COVID-19 symptoms, including a hoarse voice, a person familiar with the situation said, and they suspected Biden and his team would wait until he sounded better before making any public comments.
There’s disagreement among Democratic lawmakers about the best path forward. Biden’s endorsement of Harris is likely to derail debate over whether another candidate would be better positioned to beat Trump. But before his endorsement, many lawmakers had concerns about Harris’ ability to take on Trump — in part because of mixed internal polling data, according to two Democratic senators — and were interested in exploring the possibility of an open convention.
Others in Biden’s inner circle believe there is no option, no time, to reboot and re-staff a campaign that Harris could inherit outright, barring legal challenges. One donor said there would be a push for an open process, and that Biden’s announcement of his support for Harris had been a disappointment.
“People were excited about the short period between Biden’s first announcement and the second,” this person said.
But that was the concern of tomorrow. Enough had changed already.
“I need a drink,” a campaign worker wrote in a text message just after 2 p.m.