'DEFCON 1' for Dems as 'internal finger pointing' throws Biden debate prep team under the bus

28 June 2024

President Joe Biden’s debate performance is being described by administration officials as a “disaster,” Axios reports, as reporter Alex Thompson notes the “internal finger pointing” is singling out the president’s debate prep team for “prepar[ing] him for the wrong debate.”

Biden took on former President Donald Trump during a live CNN debate Thursday night, delivering a performance that former President Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe called a “DEFCON 1” moment for the president.

“The concern level is quite high,” Plouffe told MSNBC.

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Axios reports that a slew of former Biden administration officials and Democratic campaign veterans maligned the president’s performance on background, calling it a “disaster” and a “catastrophe.”

"It's sad but it also makes me so mad to think of all the smart people lying and trying to make this work," a former Biden White House official told Axios.

According to Thompson, “the finger-pointing began quickly among some White House officials over how Biden's inner circle had conducted the president's debate prep.”

One person “in Biden’s orbit” said the president “was over-prepared and relying on minutiae when all that mattered was vigor and energy.”

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“They prepared him for the wrong debate,” that person told Axios. “He was over-prepared when what he needed was rest. It's confounding.”

While many spoke anonymously on background for the report, some pundits are putting their names their names behind vocal criticisms of the president.

"It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden,” former Biden White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said on CNN.

Read the full report from Axios.

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