By Seung Min Kim
WASHINGTON — White House chief of staff Jeff Zients urged people during an all-staff meeting on Wednesday to tune out the “noise” and focus on the task of governing as senior aides scramble to contain the political fallout from President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance.
Even as Zients acknowledged that the days since the Atlanta matchup between Biden and Republican Donald Trump have been challenging, the chief of staff stressed to White House aides the accomplishments and the track record of the Democratic administration and said governing will only become more crucial once the campaign season heats up, particularly after the Fourth of July holiday, according to a White House official.
TODAY: Democrats in Congress are torn between backing Biden for president and sounding the alarm
Biden himself began making personal outreach on his own, speaking privately with senior Democratic lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons and South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, according to a second White House official and others with knowledge of the conversations.
On Capitol Hill, there is increasing anxiety with each day as Biden had been slow to reach out to top Democrats and rank-and-file members, according to people familiar with ongoing conversations. Democrats are unsatisfied with the explanations of Biden’s debate performance from both White House staff and Biden himself. And there is a deeper frustration among some Democrats who feel Biden should have handled this much sooner and has put them in a difficult position by staying in the race.
Zients tried to rally the staff’s confidence in Biden’s reelection apparatus, noting that the president has a “strong campaign team” in place and that the White House’s job was to focus on continuing to implement Biden’s agenda. He also told staff that Biden has always made it through tough times, despite being…
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