Dunn: Early debate strategy aimed to counter age concerns; illness and debate night hurt campaign
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Summary
Anita Dunn, a former senior White House adviser and debate prep participant, told the House Oversight Committee that advisers recommended an early 2024 debate to counter voter concerns about President Biden's age and that an illness during Camp David prep and a poor debate night harmed his campaign.
Anita Dunn, who helped prepare President Joe Biden for debates in 2024, told House Oversight Committee questioners that the campaign and senior White House advisers recommended holding an early debate to give voters more direct exposure to Biden and to frame the election as a two-person choice with former President Donald Trump.
"We felt that the best reassurance to voters, about Joe Biden was for them to hear and see Joe Biden," Dunn said, explaining the rationale for recommending an early June debate. She said the special counsel report and the president's strong State of the Union performance were among the inputs that informed the timing.
Dunn described debate preparation at Camp David. She said she took a role playing CNN moderator Dana Bash in mock sessions and that the president arrived already developing cold symptoms. "On Monday, we had an initial, kind of mock debate Monday afternoon where, you know, I thought he seemed in pretty good shape, but he was developing a cold at the time," she said. Mocks were shortened on Tuesday and Wednesday "because we wanted to save his voice. We didn't want to have him standing there for 90 minutes and using his voice that much," she testified.
Dunn said she watched the actual debate on a dial group (real-time voter-reaction tracking) and with family at home. She described the debate as "a bad night," saying the beginning was particularly weak and politically harmful. "Coming out of the debate, there's no question that people had concerns that have been brought to the forefront by his poor performance in the debate," she testified. She also said that while the debate produced a noticeable political reaction, she believed there remained a path to victory leading up to November.
Dunn told the committee the campaign received outreach after the debate from people urging Biden to withdraw as well as from staffers and supporters asking what the campaign's plan would be going forward. She said she continued to believe the president could have won but respected his ultimate decision to withdraw.