After a disastrous debate, focus falls on Joe Biden’s inner circle

As the party asks who is to blame for the US president's poor performance against Trump, calls grow for Biden to widen his team

When Joe Biden became engulfed in a plagiarism scandal during his first US presidential campaign in 1987, his adviser and friend Ted Kaufman was blunt: There's only one way to stop the sharks, and that's pull out," he said.

When Biden was contemplating another run for the White House in 2015, it fell to another longtime confidant, Mike Donilon, to deliver the verdict. I caught him looking at me and gestured, What is it, Mike?" Biden later wrote in his memoir. I don't think you should do this,' he said."