Biden’s Team Left Senators Unmoved Despite Really Needing to Move Them

Senators meeting with the president’s reelection campaign didn’t bring the kumbaya moment Democrats are in desperate search of.

Chuck Schumer
The meeting between Democratic senators and Biden’s reelection campaign was announced Wednesday afternoon and scheduled at Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s request. Andrew Harnik/AP

If President Joe Biden thought his campaign advisers could calm the concerns of Democratic senators with one private meeting, it won’t be that simple.

“Some of my concerns are allayed,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters as he left Senate Democrats’ Thursday meeting with top Biden officials. “Some others have been deepened.”

The midday gathering with President Joe Biden’s senior advisers, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, as well as his campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, did little to move the needle, senators and aides told NOTUS. The presentation was reportedly low on specifics — they shared no polling data — at a time when Biden’s loudest critics are saying they badly need to know how the president can actually win.