Nobody else is done with talking about the debate and Joe Biden's future as the Democrat candidate, but Joe Biden's White House says that there is nothing more to say. 

He had a bad night. Move on. 

Team Biden is done debating the debate.

“We’re done talking about the debate and focused on a singular mission: Defeating Donald Trump in November," one Biden aide said.

A senior official: “I’m moving on to my day job." w/ @kaylatausche https://t.co/mdjdkAZhAr

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) July 10, 2024

Practically speaking the White House has little to no control over the Narrative anymore, so their desire to move on will likely not have any impact on the news cycle or discussions among pundits, but if CNN's reporting is right the White House is going to shut down any more discussion on their end. 

Washington CNN — 

Nearly two weeks after President Joe Biden’s stunningly halting debate performance, many of his fellow Democrats are still fretting about it – and anxiously wondering whether Biden is really the party’s best bet to defeat Donald Trump in November.

But the president and his team are done talking about it.

Aides to the president told CNN that not only are they no longer interested in discussing Biden’s on-stage fiasco last month, and there are simply no outstanding questions about the president’s political future to debate. Biden is staying in the race, they say, and there is nothing that could change that.

It doesn’t matter how many more Democratic lawmakers might call on Biden to drop out; it doesn’t matter what news outlet releases a new editorial calling on the president to abandon his campaign for a second term; it doesn’t matter how Biden’s upcoming public appearances and interviews go.

“We’re done talking about the debate and focused on a singular mission: Defeating Donald Trump in November,” one Biden aide told CNN.

And rather than worry about the president’s political future, a senior administration official told CNN, “I’m moving on to my day job.”

I can't say that this is a good strategy because, at this point, the White House has lost all control over the political framing. People are determined to talk about Biden's place on the ticket, his health status, who is leaking what, whether donors will continue to dump him, and whether he wears Depends. 

Obamaworld is now coming out in numbers against Biden and Barack is directing them behind the scenes. pic.twitter.com/nr6iVERUCw

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) July 10, 2024

That is true both for organic reasons--there is no more interesting story in America right now--and inorganic reasons--many lawmakers, candidates, media folks, and especially the Obama crowd want Joe Biden exiled to Siberia. They used him up and they are going to spit him out because all that is left are the unpleasant taste and the pit. 

The media needs him gone because they are trying to save their last shreds of credibility. They have been perpetrating a hoax that everybody now sees, and they need to blame Biden and his handlers to save their own skins (it won't work well, either). The reason Congressmen want him out is obvious, as is the abandonment of Biden by his donors as well. He is spreading a plague that will kill Democrats this year. 

President Joe Biden’s campaign has already suffered a major slowdown in donations and officials are bracing for a seismic fundraising hit, with the fallout from a debate nearly two weeks ago taking a sizable toll on operations, according to four sources close to the re-election effort. 

“It’s already disastrous,” one of the sources close to Biden’s re-election said of fundraising.  

"The money has absolutely shut off" to the Biden campaign, another source close to Biden's re-election said.

Two of the sources said this month is on a path to be down by possibly half — “or much more,” one of them said — from large donors alone. Sources emphasized that the donations were down across the board.

“Donors are negative. They had a call with the president. The call seemed so contrived to people, I don’t think they buy it,” one of the people close to the campaign said, referencing a recent national fundraising call between Biden and donors. “They called on people who were the most loyal, diehard … There were no tough questions for the president."

Obama people never liked Joe, but they got a lot out of his presidency, so they played along. Now Joe is played out. And if Joe stays in he will take a lot of Obama's power base with him. 

Hence the George Clooney opinion piece. He is speaking for Obama. There is no way he wrote and published that without Obama's OK, and the New York Times would never have published it without running it by him. 

Joe, though, has gone all-in on what Ed called his "Mutual Assured Destruction" strategy. If the party takes him out, he will take them down with him. He is playing a game of chicken and he has nothing to lose. If he gives in he is politically dead, and if he doesn't he still has a chance to survive. 

Despite all that, asked about the likelihood the president had considered withdrawing since the debate, a longtime adviser to Biden said: “Zero. He truly believes he is the only person who can defeat Donald Trump. It’s not an act.”

Aides also say that the president’s family, some of whom had privately discussed whether Biden should fire any senior staff in the immediate aftermath of the CNN debate, remain all in on the 81-year-old president’s pursuit of a second term.

The adviser told CNN that some members within the president’s inner circle have expressed concern about the deterioration of support for Biden on Capitol Hill – but that only the president’s own family could persuade him to exit the race, and only if they had hard data.

Already The New York Times is amping up its pressure on Biden--this time on the "news" side. They are now fact-checking Biden, debunking attacks on Donald Trump (!!!), and writing up every verbal flub without making Joe sound good. (Read Heather MacDonald's piece in City Journal on that story. Really, do. It is great.)

Next step? Will they start covering his personal scandals, including the Biden Crime Family, the questions about his sexual conduct, his obsession with children, and all the sleazy stuff?

Maybe. Chuck Todd yesterday basically said Joe Biden is a bad man and that the Narrative will change. 

As I said, it is mutually assured destruction. Biden is daring the media to go there, betting that it won't. We'll see. 

In the meantime, the White House is saying they are no longer talking about the issue. It is closed for business when it comes to talking about Biden's brain or his intentions about running. 

Over to you, Democrats. Are you going to swerve? Joe isn't. He will crash the car before dropping out. 

PS--only one thing MIGHT change this, but I doubt it, and that is threats to make Hunter a sacrifice (legally speaking). I doubt Joe would move because of that because he has the pardon power.