Democrats were panicking. Donors were despondent. And some elected officials were privately questioning whether their leader should step aside.
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Analysis | In private, Democrats panic. For the Biden campaign, everything is fine.
Campaign officials touted their record fundraising on debate day. White House officials promised that Biden would bounce back at his upcoming North Carolina rally. And Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, told nervous donors at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta on Friday that “nothing fundamentally changed in the race.”
By Tuesday, however, the business-as-usual calm the Biden team sought to impose had backfired, with some Democrats complaining of being gaslit.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) became the first Democratic member of Congress to defect, calling for Biden to drop out of the race, and other Democrats publicly urged Biden to more seriously address his fitness for the job. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) opened the door to a post-Biden election, saying on MSNBC that he would support Vice President Harris were Biden to step aside.
The public developments represented a striking contrast from the four days after Biden’s halting 2024 debate debut, when his inner circle and campaign team publicly emitted a steady stream of denialism and don’t-believe-your-lying-eyes happy talk, arguing that the 81-year-old president — noticeably slower and physically aged than four years ago — is still the best candidate to defeat Trump in November.
“Joe isn’t just the right person for the job,” first lady Jill Biden said at a fundraiser Saturday in East Hampton, N.Y. “He’s the only person for the job.”
Officials said his post-debate swing re-energized donors and voters, pointing to his $38 million fundraising haul in the days after and his packed rally in Raleigh. They also noted Biden’s top aides made a flurry of private calls to top elected Democrats and donors, to stave off defections and reiterate that Biden had no plans to exit the race.
“We’ve always said this was going to be a close race and a tough campaign, and we’re working incredibly hard to earn every single vote, and taking nothing for granted,” Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said in a statement.
But during the four-state swing after the debate — during which he inaugurated a visitor center at the Stonewall National Monument and attended three fundraisers — Biden’s traveling entourage operated with a breezy, nothing-to-see-here attitude, as if pantomiming a thriving campaign not in the midst of an existential crisis.
A top aide to the first lady danced as Diana Ross blared on the tarmac in Raleigh, , N.C. in the wee hours of Friday. Mike Donilon, a longtime confidant to the president and chief strategist of his campaign, eschewed a suit for casual summer wear: seersucker short-sleeve, button-down shirt and suede, horsebit loafers. And aides scoffed at reporters when they asked the president whether he planned to drop out.
Two of Biden’s granddaughters joined him for the final day of the swing, before they reunited with the rest of the Biden clan ahead of a scheduled family photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz at Camp David — a tableau that, as party leaders privately fretted about a second Trump term ushering in the end of American democracy, had echoes of Nero fiddling while Rome burned.
But as Democratic strategists, elected officials and liberal pundits publicly and privately called for — at the very least — a serious discussion about whether Biden should step aside, he and his campaign instead offered business-as-usual spin.
“It’s a familiar story: Following Thursday night’s debate, the Beltway class is counting Joe Biden out,” Dillon wrote in an email blasted out Saturday evening. “The data in the battleground states, though, tells a different story.”
But a sentence about polling later in Dillon’s memo belied her studied nonchalance, seeming to acknowledge that Biden might very well drop in the polls as voters continue to process Biden’s debate stage performance: “If we do see changes in polling in the coming weeks, it will not be the first time that overblown media narratives have driven temporary dips in the polls,” she wrote.
Shortly after Dillon’s memo, deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty also sent out an email full of “helpful” responses to help calm nervous Democrats.
“If you’re like me, you’re getting lots of texts or calls from folks about the state of the race after Thursday. Maybe it was your panicked aunt, your MAGA uncle, or some self-important Podcasters,” Flaherty wrote, before offering such suggested talking points as “the long-term impact of debates is overstated anyway” and “90 minutes does not negate 3-½ years of results.”
The Biden operation appears to think it has no choice but to proceed as if his meandering debate performance — his voice was frail, his thoughts were garbled, and he failed to meaningfully fact check Trump — was merely an aberration.
To even entertain the criticism ricocheting around their party would be to tacitly acknowledge what many Democratic voters have long feared and what some officials and strategists have long whispered: That Biden is too old to run for a second term, and that he should have kept his promise to serve as a “bridge” to the next generation and bowed out in time for a vigorous Democratic primary.
Now, however, Biden’s team finds itself taking what Democratic critics point to as hubris and selfishness and repackaging it as resilience.
Inside Biden’s inner circle, the latest round of criticism — particularly from editorial boards and pundits — is being dismissed as the standard underestimation of Biden’s ability. Aides have been quick to remind anxious allies and donors of when Democrats said Biden needed to drop out of the Democratic primary in 2020 after losing badly in Iowa and New Hampshire before going on to win the nomination and defeat Trump. And they have also noted that Biden, who has suffered great personal tragedy, has weathered much tougher times and will bounce back.
As evidence, they pointed to his boisterous rally in Raleigh the day after the debate — where an adoring crowd of more than 2,000 people cheered for him and Biden delivered a fierce defense of his ability to serve as president.
“I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth,” Biden said. “I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
The Biden campaign is also trying to stay focused on their original theory of the case — that this election needs to be a referendum on the former president, not the sitting one.
During the debate itself, for instance, almost three-quarters of Biden’s social media posts mentioned Trump, while other left-wing political influencers posted more frequently about how old Biden appeared and critiqued his performance, according to a Washington Post analysis of social media posts, podcasts and other public statements.
In the days after the debate, the trend continued. More than half of Biden’s social media posts about the debate focused on Trump and his performance, while only a few addressed Biden’s own age.
The Biden strategy of happy talk, however, comes with risks, making the president and his team seem out of touch with reality.
Hilary Rosen, a longtime Democratic strategist, said she thinks the Biden operation “would have been better off sticking with honesty.”
“You can’t tell people they didn’t see what they saw,” Rosen said. ” To try to turn this around and try to make it be everybody else’s fault — it’s not only offensive, it just isn’t going to fly.”
One observer of the current Senate race in Louisiana noted that Sen. Bill Cassidy could lose his reelection bid.
Annie Flanagan for NPR
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Annie Flanagan for NPR
Sen. Bill Cassidy lost Saturday’s Louisiana Republican primary according to a race call by the Associated Press.
Cassidy, who served two terms in the Senate, was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Trump after the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. That vote put him at odds with Trump and his MAGA coalition, ultimately leading Trump to push Rep. Julia Letlow to run against Cassidy.
Cassidy’s bid for a third term was viewed as a test of Trump’s grip on the party–and of what voters want from their representatives in Washington. The primary pitted Cassidy, a veteran lawmaker, former physician and chair of the powerful Senate health committee, against Letlow, a political newcomer and a millennial MAGA loyalist.
A detailed view of a hat that reads, Run Julia Run, is seen at a campaign event for Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) on May 6, 2026 in Franklinton, Louisiana.
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A former college administrator, Letlow won a special election in 2021 for the House seat her late husband, Luke, was set to assume before he died from COVID in 2020.
In Congress, Letlow sponsored a bill to collect oral histories from the pandemic and has focused on education and children. She introduced the “Parents Bill of Rights Act,” which would allow parents to review classroom materials like library books and require schools to notify parents if their child requests different pronouns, locker rooms or sports teams.
She also serves on the powerful appropriations committee and has embraced Trump’s agenda.
Letlow, who came first in Saturday’s primary, will face Louisiana state Treasurer John Fleming in the runoff on June 27. Cassidy came in third.
The election result is a victory for President Trump who has put Republican loyalty to the test on the ballot so far this year in Indiana state senate primaries and in Cassidy’s race.
Another major test of Trump’s influence comes in Kentucky’s primary on Tuesday when Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who has found himself at odds with the president, faces a challenger endorsed by Trump.
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Brass bands in Beijing make way for sticker shock at home as Trump returns to escalating inflation
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump returned from the spectacle of a Chinese state visit to a less than welcoming U.S. economy — with the military band and garden tour in Beijing giving way to pressure over how to fix America’s escalating inflation rate.
Consumer inflation in the United States increased to 3.8% annually in April, higher than what he inherited as the Iran war and the Republican president’s own tariffs have pushed up prices. Inflation is now outpacing wage gains and effectively making workers poorer. The Cleveland Federal Reserve estimates that annual inflation could reach 4.2% in May as the war has kept oil and gasoline prices high.
Trump’s time with Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears unlikely to help the U.S. economy much, despite Trump’s claims of coming trade deals. The trip occurred as many people are voting in primaries leading into the November general election while having to absorb the rising costs of gasoline, groceries, utility bills, jewelry, women’s clothing, airplane tickets and delivery services. Democrats see the moment as a political opportunity.
“He’s returning to a dumpster fire,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal think tank focused on economic issues. “The president will not have the faith and confidence of the American people — the economy is their top issue and the president is saying, ‘You’re on your own.’”
The president’s trip to Beijing and his recent comments that indicated a tone-deafness to voters’ concerns about rising prices have suggested his focus is not on the American public and have undermined Republicans who had intended to campaign on last year’s tax cuts as helping families.
Trump described the trip as a victory, saying on social media that Xi “congratulated me on so many tremendous successes,” as the U.S. president has praised their relationship.
Trump told reporters that Boeing would be selling 200 aircraft — and maybe even 750 “if they do a good job” — to the Chinese. He said American farmers would be “very happy” because China would be “buying billions of dollars of soybeans.”
“We had an amazing time,” Trump said as he flew home on Air Force One, and told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview that gasoline prices were just some “short-term pain” and would “drop like a rock” once the war ends.
Inflationary pain is not a factor in how Trump handles Iran
Trump departed from the White House for China by saying the negotiations over the Iran war depended on stopping Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
That remark prompted blowback because it suggested to some that Trump cared more about challenging Iran than fighting inflation at home. Trump defended his words, telling Fox News: “That’s a perfect statement. I’d make it again.”
The White House has since stressed that Trump is focused on inflation.
Asked later about the president’s words, Vice President JD Vance said there had been a “misrepresentation” of the remarks. White House spokesman Kush Desai said the “administration remains laser-focused on delivering growth and affordability on the homefront” while indicating actions would be taken on grocery prices.
But as Trump appeared alongside Xi, new reports back home showed inflation rising for businesses and interest rates climbing on U.S. government debt.
His comments that Boeing would sell 200 jets to China caused the company’s stock price to fall because investors had expected a larger number. There was little concrete information offered about any trade agreements reached during the summit, including Chinese purchases of U.S. exports such as liquefied natural gas and beef.
“Foreign policy wins can matter politically, but only if voters feel stability and affordability in their daily lives,” said Brittany Martinez, a former Republican congressional aide who is the executive director of Principles First, a center-right advocacy group focused on democracy issues.
“Midterms are almost always a referendum on cost of living and public frustration, and Republicans are not immune from the same inflation and affordability pressures that hurt Democrats in recent cycles,” she added.
Democrats see Trump as vulnerable
Democratic lawmakers are seizing on Trump’s comments before his trip as proof of his indifference to lowering costs. There is potential staying power of his remarks as Americans head into Memorial Day weekend facing rising prices for the hamburgers and hot dogs to be grilled.
“What Americans do not see is any sympathy, any support, or any plan from Trump and congressional Republicans to lower costs – in fact, they see the opposite,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Thursday.
Vance faulted the Biden administration for the inflation problem even though the inflation rate is now higher than it was when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 with a specific mandate to fix it.
“The inflation number last month was not great,” Vance said Wednesday, but he then stressed, “We’re not seeing anything like what we saw under the Biden administration.”
Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 under Biden, a Democrat. By the time Trump took the oath of office, it was a far more modest 3%.
Trump’s inflation challenge could get harder
The data tells a different story as higher inflation is spreading into the cost of servicing the national debt.
Over the past week, the interest rate charged on 10-year U.S. government debt jumped from 4.36% to 4.6%, an increase that implies higher costs for auto loans and mortgages.
“My fear is that the layers of supply shocks that are affecting the U.S. economy will only further feed into inflationary pressures,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.
Daco noted that last year’s tariff increases were now translating into higher clothing prices. With the Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s ability to impose tariffs by declaring an economic emergency, his administration is preparing a new set of import taxes for this summer.
Daco stressed that there have been a series of supply shocks. First, tariffs cut into the supply of imports. In addition, Trump’s immigration crackdown cut into the supply of foreign-born workers. Now, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off the vital waterway used to ship 20% of global oil supplies.
“We’re seeing an erosion of growth,” Daco said.
Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, the Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, said she was fired from the agency Friday after she declined to resign.
She said she did not know who had ordered her firing or why, nor whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. knew of her fate. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The departure reflected the upheaval at the F.D.A., days after the resignation of Dr. Marty Makary, the agency commissioner. Dr. Makary had become a lightning rod for critics of the agency’s decisions to reject applications for rare disease drugs and to delay a report meant to supply damaging evidence about the abortion drug mifepristone. He also spent months before his departure pushing back on the White House’s requests for him to approve more flavored vapes, the reason he ultimately cited for leaving.
Dr. Hoeg’s hiring had startled public health leaders who were familiar with her track record as a vaccine skeptic, and she played a leading role in some of the agency’s most divisive efforts during her tenure. She worked on a report that purportedly linked the deaths of children and young adults to Covid vaccines, a dossier the agency has not released publicly. She was also the co-author of a document describing Mr. Kennedy’s decision to pare the recommendations for 17 childhood vaccines down to 11.
But in an interview on Friday, Dr. Hoeg said she “stuck with the science.”
“I am incredibly proud of the work we were doing,” Dr. Hoeg said, adding, “I’m glad that we didn’t give in to any pressures to approve drugs when it wasn’t appropriate.”
As the director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, she was a political appointee in a role that had been previously occupied by career officials. An epidemiologist who was trained in the United States and Denmark, she worked on efforts to analyze drug safety and on a panel to discuss the use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants, during pregnancy. She also worked on efforts to reduce animal testing and was the agency’s liaison to an influential vaccine committee.
She made sure that her teams approved drugs only when the risk-benefit balance was favorable, she said.
The firing worsens the leadership vacuum at the F.D.A. and other agencies, with temporary leaders filling the role of commissioner, food chief and the head of the biologics center, which oversees vaccines and gene therapies. The roles of surgeon general and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also unfilled.
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