JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President Biden is facing questions from Democrats about whether he has what it takes to beat former President Donald Trump after a disastrous debate performance that they are still talking about about two weeks later. But tonight he will face questions from reporters. It's an event that members of his own party will be watching as they decide whether to call for him to step aside. Earlier today, Biden's top advisers met behind closed doors with Democratic senators to try to convince them that there is a path to winning in November. NPR's senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins us now from the Capitol. Hi, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Tam, it's been a while since I've heard that you were at the Capitol.
KEITH: Indeed.
SUMMERS: So, I mean, this must have been a big meeting. Tell us what you've heard. What did senators say coming out of it?
KEITH: You know, there's a saying that the most dangerous place on the Hill is between a senator and a microphone. But today, most Democratic senators actively avoided our questions. Some walked by in silence. Most took a back exit after the meeting wrapped. New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan told us that the briefing from Biden's top campaign advisers was strong and persuasive. She is standing by Biden. But Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut said the briefing allayed some of his concerns, but others were deepened. He wants to see more polling. But he said it wasn't enough just to hear from Biden's aides. He wants Biden to personally be out there, be aggressive, taking the fight to former President Trump.
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: Joe Biden has to go to the American people, not just in one meeting, one press conference, one speech, but consistently and constantly. Tonight will be important. The press conference will be potentially a turning point.
KEITH: And whether they said it on the record or not, that is where a lot of Democrats are.
SUMMERS: Tam, do you have any sense of what the Biden campaign is saying, what they told senators there today?
KEITH: The Senators I spoke to did not share a lot of details, but I did obtain an internal campaign memo where top adviser Jen O'Malley Dillon said, the bad debate has increased anxiety but, despite the setback, hasn't led to a dramatic collapse in the polls. The strategy is still to attack Trump and appeal to Black and brown voters who have traditionally been Democrats. And significantly, she said that while there are many potential paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win, the campaign is now really focusing in on the so-called blue-wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Biden will campaign in Michigan tomorrow. But the message from the campaign seems to be that they just have to grind this out.
SUMMERS: And, Tam, about this press conference that we're going to be following tonight, just how much of a test is this for President Biden?
KEITH: It's coming at the end of the NATO summit, but I can guarantee you that he will not be getting many questions about foreign policy. This is a solo press conference, something he has done very few of. His last solo press conference on U.S. soil was last fall in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Martha Joynt Kumar studies this. She's an emeritus professor at Towson University. And she told me that Biden has done fewer press conferences overall than any president since Ronald Reagan. And it hasn't been to Biden's benefit because she says press conferences force a president to run through their paces and also allow the public to take a measure of the man.
MARTHA JOYNT KUMAR: There are a lot of questions because people haven't seen the president. They see it in very short spurts, and so the image that we saw of the president in the debate was a shocking image.
KEITH: Elected Democrats will be watching the press conference tonight for signs that Biden has the fight to pull it off. If it is bad, the dam could break because there are a ton of elected Democrats saying privately that they hope Biden reconsiders his decision to stay in. If the press conference is good, it could buy him some time.
SUMMERS: That's in NPR White House correspondent, Tamara Keith. Tam, thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
