'We can't catch a break.' How the Biden crisis looks from the inside

Hit by a rolling series of punches — the turmoil after President Biden's disastrous debate, the drip-drip-drip of damaging leaks from congressional allies, and now a campaign-stalling case of COVID — people who work inside the Biden campaign are discouraged and uncertain about what lies ahead.

"We can't catch a break,” a Biden adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity to frankly describe private conversations.

Ever since Biden faltered in his debate three weeks ago against former President Donald Trump, the bad news just keeps coming — much of it from unnamed sources who are supposed to be allies of their team, the adviser said.

Not enough momentum 'to get us back on solid footing'

While there have been some positive moments for the president since the debate, “They haven't been enough to get us back on solid footing," the adviser said.

Biden had been gaining a bit of a momentum, giving energetic rallies in three "Blue Wall" states, culminating in a fired-up retooled stump speech in Detroit on Friday, where supporters chanted, "Don't you quit!"

But Biden's private meetings with top congressional leaders last week were sobering, and then there were the leaks from gatherings with rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers worried that Biden’s political woes will be toxic for their own races.

"In moments of crisis, you really get to know a lot about people," the adviser said.

Biden, a long-time senator, is pragmatic about the political calculations that lawmakers are making, the adviser said.

But the president bristled in one meeting last weekend when Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., suggested, in a respectful tone, that Americans were losing sleep because they were worried about the national security risks associated with an aging