Bidenworld’s Darkest Hour

Biden may find the next 10 days to two weeks even more challenging than even the past 72 hours. As the polling numbers stream in, Democratic elected officials and fundraisers are inclined not to give the president or his team the slightest margin for error or benefit of the doubt. To say they have lost faith would be putting it far too mildly.

The punditocracy has been all but unanimous (and lethally so) in its collective judgment that the time has come for Joe to go. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

John Heilemann

July 2, 2024

At the end of a weekend in which the question of whether Joe Biden should stand down as his party’s de facto presidential nominee was the singular, all-consuming topic of conversation among members of the Democratic political class, the president and his family were gathered at Camp David for a Vogue photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz. But at the same time, and more significantly, Bidenworld was working the phones, endeavoring mightily to shut down the chatter du jour, tout de suite.