Granholm says it ‘important’ for Democrats to stand by Biden after debate

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, speaking in her personal capacity as a former Michigan governor, called on Democrats to stand by President Joe Biden’s reelection efforts after what she described as his “challenged” debate performance last week.

“It’s easy to be with your candidate on a good night, but it’s important to be with him on a bad night,” Granholm told a crowd of Democrats at a Biden campaign barbecue in Canton on Sunday.

A CBS News poll released Sunday shows that 72% of surveyed voters do not believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, compared to just 27% who believe he does.

That number is lower among Democratic voters – 41% think Biden does not have the mental and cognitive health to serve as president – but has increased dramatically since June, when 29% of Democratic respondents answered that way.

The same poll shows that 49% of surveyed voters do not believe Trump has the mental and cognitive health to be president, with 50% saying he does.

Among Democratic voters surveyed in the CBS News poll, 46% said Biden should not be running for president, which is from 36% of Democrats who said that in February.

But in a memo sent Saturday, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said that if head-to-head polling shifts in the coming weeks, “it will not be the first time that overblown media narratives have driven temporary dips in the polls.”

Since the debate, some donors and Democratic officials have reportedly questioned whether Democrats should consider nominating a different candidate, and the editorial board of the New York Times has called on Biden to step aside.

In a fundraising email signed by deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, the Biden campaign called those who want to consider potential replacement nominees “the bedwetting brigade” and argued that Biden is still the best candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump in November.

“First of all: Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee, period. End of story. Voters voted. He won overwhelmingly,” Flaherty wrote, adding that the process of replacing him would be “a highway to losing” due to intraparty fighting and the fact that a new candidate would be starting from scratch on things like fundraising and volunteer networks.

Granholm suggested that pundits calling for Biden to be replaced are too reactionary.

“We as Democrats have got to inject some steel into our spine and stand up,” Granholm said. “Why don’t we see all these editorials calling for Donald Trump to step out of the race?”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) argued that the questions over Biden’s age are one-sided and ignore concerns Democratic voters have about a potential second Trump presidency.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

State Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024, that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) also attended. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024, that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also attended. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, left, and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), right, campaign for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), left, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, right, campaign for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), right, campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024, that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also attended. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) reacts to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm calling her a "pitbull" while campaigning for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. Granholm appeared in her personal capacity as a former governor of Michigan. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024, that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also attended. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), left, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, right, campaign for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

State Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton) campaigns for President Joe Biden at an event in Canton, Mich., on June 30, 2024, that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) also attended. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

“Look, Thursday night, I don’t sugarcoat, it wasn’t a great debate. It wasn’t,” Dingell said. “But for me, it wasn’t a great debate for Donald Trump, either,” she added, skewering the former president on a range of issues including abortion and his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“We cannot let someone like that run the White House, destroy our country, destroy our democracy,” Dingell said.

Granholm, who previously stood in as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin during Biden’s preparations for the 2008 vice presidential debate, said that “90 minutes of a challenged performance … does not take away three-and-a-half years of an excellent presidency.”

She urged Democratic volunteers to not cede ground on any issues, including the economy, which she acknowledged many voters may have concerns about as a result of inflation.

“When the president took office, inflation got to 9.1%. That’s really high. It’s really high,” Granholm said. “He’s just a regular guy and he sees what happens. He wants this number to go down. It’s gone from 9.1% to about 3%, so it’s dropped about two thirds, and he’s got a plan to work to bring down costs further. … When you’ve got a plan, you’ve got somebody who’s working a plan, the plan is working, you don’t pull out in the middle.”

In the meantime, Granholm said, Democrats can focus on 15.8 million jobs being created and the unemployment rate being the lowest it’s been in decades.

“More people are working right now than ever before in American history,” Granholm said.

Beyond that, new jobs are being created as a result of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, Granholm said, pointing to construction projects throughout Michigan.

“I hope you’ve seen the factories that have been announced and that are opening up because of the president’s agenda,” Granholm said. “It’s astonishing, all over the country. I hope you’re starting to see it; it takes a little bit of time from announcement to the actual hiring of people.”

Granholm said that’s a stark contrast to when she was governor from 2003 to 2011.

“When I was governor, it was in the middle of the recession. All these factories were going – they were going overseas, too. And we stood by as a nation and watched all these manufacturing jobs go overseas,” Granholm said. “We didn’t have a federal policy to keep them here, to attract international investment. Under this president, Joe Biden from Scranton said we’re not going to stand by and let other countries poach our factories, our jobs. We are going to have a strategy to create jobs in America.”

Another aspect of her former job that Granholm said she doesn’t miss: debates.

“Let me just say, as someone who debated, I hated debates. Hated them with a passion,” Granholm said. “The skill you need in a debate is completely not the skill you need in governing, and he has done a fantastic job governing.”

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