It has to be tough to be working on the campaign for Joe Biden. 

You know you're trying to sell a failed product, so what do you do? 

According to Axios, some folks in the Biden team were battling "low morale and disillusionment" as they had s second "all hands conference call" with DNC staffers. 

They had people like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on the call to try to encourage people to "worry less." Where was Joe? Asleep? 

Although this was about trying to reassure and encourage people, they turned off the chat function on the call, so people couldn't relate their concerns. So much for real concern and accepting input. The Biden campaign claimed that function was never enabled on such calls. But then, why would the aides mention it if that were true? Obviously, they don't think their opinions are appreciated. 

This part of the report is something else, as some of the staffers were devastated by Biden's debate performance. 

Between the lines: The internal fallout from the debate was made worse by the White House's senior leadership appearing not to realize how deeply their own aides were impacted by watching Biden's meandering performance in Atlanta.

• At the Biden campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Del., about two dozen Biden staffers and pro-Biden influencers gathered for a watch party the night of the debate.
• As the president fumbled several answers, one person stood up and then laid down on the floor, despondent, according to a person in the room. 
• When the debate's video feed was temporarily interrupted, one campaign staffer blurted out, "Oh, thank god."

How do you work when you know Biden is completely out of it? Remember, these are the folks some Democrats were saying would hold up the government if there was a problem with Biden. Lying down on the floor sounds really encouraging to me. The "Oh, thank God" is funny too. 

The staffers' reactions ranged from "shock to anger to sincere concern" about Biden. 

• "Is he okay?" a Biden aide texted another during the debate.
• Another Biden staffer recalled that given the president's energetic State of the Union address in March, "I was convinced before the debate that Biden would clean the floor with Trump."
• That staffer added that some members of their family "are panicky Democrats who have been convinced for a while that Biden was too old to run, and I'd been the one defending him. I had to reckon in real time with them that I thought they were right."

Another Biden aide said they felt "numb."

• And a final Biden aide summed it up this way: "It was, in effect, the realization of every worst-case scenario."

How is any of it a surprise to these people? Were they not watching him? Were they high on their own supply of malarkey about him? They really can't honestly say this and acknowledge that we knew more than them when they presumably have had to deal with him in the White House and on the campaign trail. 

Either they were shut out by the tight circle of aides close to Biden and/or they were deluding themselves. 

The Trump War Room account teased White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates when he took issue with one of their posts. They asked if he was the guy from the Axios story who had to lie on the floor. 

So... were you the one on the floor?https://t.co/OgEozwZ9oE https://t.co/R7Q9KI4D6b pic.twitter.com/kFDpMmLHJI

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) July 10, 2024

Then, the best they can come up with after all that was, "It was a bad night." 

Not only is Biden deficient, but so is the team behind him. These are the drama queens who are running the country now? Or should we say the "tight circle of aides" plus these people? 

But what it means for Biden, too, is that the calls dinging for him are coming from inside the House. These are his own people saying essentially, "My gosh," and they want us to know it. So he can't even be assured of them.