On Saturday night in the Hamptons, the buzz at dinner parties and restaurants was about President Biden’s performance at a local, upscale fundraiser, and traffic nightmares his presence caused.
While the president got largely good reviews — words like “strong” and “energetic” were used to describe his appearance at the private event after his Thursday night debate debacle — others weren’t so sure.
One political veteran told , “Most people said they felt better,” after seeing Biden, “but some felt worse.”
The unconvinced Democrat insider said that while some at the daytime event were reassured that Biden addressed his “bad” debate in his brief speech, “it was like he was putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound… He did not have a ‘bad’ debate, he was visibly unwell.”
Biden, 81, landed on Saturday in Westhampton Beach and headed to speak at the home of billionaire Barry Rosenstein. It was the first of two big Saturday events for Biden — despite some prominent national calls for him to step down after his alarming debate showing.
Many in the liberal Hamptons donor class said they were back on board with Biden, we hear.
“Biden looked and sounded good,” an attendee at the Hamptons event told , who added that the president gave a “short speech… but strong.”
The Hamptons fixture told us: “The mood was good. People are concerned, but no one is backing down. People are still very committed. They all feel that they must defeat Trump. It will be incumbent on [Biden] and [his] campaign to continue to perform, and show that the debate was a fluke. That’s what people want to see. Step one was today, and he did a good job.”
Attendees at the fundraiser included Howard and Beth Stern, Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch and his socialite wife Lizzie, and Donald Trump’s former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci.
A source at the…
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