Mulvaney: Trump team cheering that Biden didn’t ‘crash and burn’ at NATO summit

Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said former President Trump’s team was celebrating that President Biden didn’t “crash and burn” at his press conference after the NATO summit.

“Here’s what I know, is that the team at Bedminster right now is cheering,” Mulvaney, who served in Trump’s administration, said, referring to the former president’s New Jersey property. “They were afraid to death that Joe Biden would crash and burn, and he didn’t.”

Mulvaney, who joined NewsNation’s “Cuomo” on Thursday evening after the press conference, said Trump’s team was also concerned that Biden would “knock it absolutely out of the park.”

“And he didn’t,” he said in comments highlighted by Mediaite. “The slow bleed is going to continue.”

There has been widespread panic among the Democratic Party in the two weeks since Biden’s poor debate performance. Some Democratic colleagues are calling on him to step aside, and some donors are withholding funds until the party chooses someone new to take on Trump this fall.

The president has been insistent that he is not going to drop out of the race and that he is the most capable person of taking on Trump.

Recent reporting by The Atlantic and other outlets point to Trump and his campaign very badly wanting Biden to stay in the race. They think, with Biden leading the ticket, it will propel the former president to victory in a way that replacing Biden may not do.

Mulvaney agreed, saying Thursday that Democrats don’t have a way to get rid of Biden, since the decision must be made by the president himself.

“The likely head of the ticket in November is going to be Joe Biden, and nothing is better for Donald Trump than that right now,” Mulvaney said. “He’s going to win the election if Joe Biden is on the other side of the ticket. Period. End of story.”

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.