Imagine you're a Biden campaign staffer. You figure left-leaning Politico is surely in your corner. And then on Monday, you fire up the interwebs and find this headline: "Dems in full-blown ‘freakout’ over Biden."
Yikes!
And then on Wednesday, CNN This Morning host Kasie Hunt — whom no one would accuse of being a Republican shill — pileed on: "I have to say, I feel that from sources, that they are freaking out about the state of the campaign."
In another blow to Biden, CNN reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere and New York Times reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs mad very similar points: that the Biden campaign has repeatedly claimed that a certain event would be the "turning point" in which the contrast between Biden and Trump becomes clear in Biden's favor -- but that turning point never comes.
Dovere ended on a final, ominous, note for Team Biden: perhaps the contrast with Trump has become clear -- "and voters don't care."
Hide-the-sharp-objects time at Biden HQ?
Here's the relevant transcript.
CNN This Morning
05/29/24
6:38 a.m. EDTEDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE: What matters in the trial right now is what the jury is about to do. And we'll see what that is, what that verdict is, and then how it's received by the American public. But --
KASIE HUNT: [Skeptical tone of voice]: Yeah, but do you think the verdict is gonna change anything?
DOVERE: Well, we'll see. Look, I think that one of the problems that you hear from a lot of concerned Democrats right now is that there have been many moments so far where we have been told, either the reporters told privately by campaign officials or they've sort of said it publicly, that this is the turning point for the campaign. This is when the dynamics are about to shift. This is when people are going to focus in and plug in. And that's going to benefit Joe Biden. And so far, every time has come and gone.
HUNT: Right.
DOVERE: And this may be a different moment, but if so, it will be the change from all these other moments that we've had so far that were supposed to be.
HUNT: Well, and Politico put out, let's put the Politico headline up on the screen. This from from yesterday about Democrats freaking out, basically. There it is: "Dems in full-blown 'freakout' over Biden." Now this is, in some ways, a perennial situation with Democrats. Elliot, you used to work for them. You understand the -- [LAUGHTER] -- as well as -- Isaac, I mean, this is, we joke about it here. But this is how they put it. They say quote, "You don't want to be that guy who's on the record saying we're doomed or the campaign's bad, or Biden's making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy, said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely. But Biden's stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election are creating the freakout, he said. This isn't oh my God, Mitt Romney might become president. It's oh my God, the democracy might end." And I mean, I have to say that, I feel that from sources, that they are freaking out about the state of the campaign. Is this just another cycle of that, or --
DOVERE: I mean, Democrats in full-blown freakout over -- fill in the blank every day of the week, every week of the year, always. But, yes, the stakes of this election are high and we have this weird confluence of people feeling like they don't want to talk about the eleciton, are tuned out from, and that we will be living in a different country if Joe Biden is president or if Donald Trump is president.
(....)
6:40 a.m. Eastern
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS: You were saying that this might be a moment that the Biden campaign sees sort of a shift. I feel like we've been hearing over the past year, time and time again. This is gonna be the moment --
DOVERE: Totally.
KANNO-YOUNGS: -- when the contrast is clear. This is going to be the moment when the contrast as clear. That's kind of part of the big concern among Democrats here.
HUNT: Yeah.
KANNO-YOUNGS: You have one candidate in a trial, another candidate focused on governing, and so far that contrast still hasn't become clear, at least when it comes to polling for voters.
DOVERE: Or it's become clear, and voters don't care.
HUNT: Right, yes. Also possible.
