President Biden hopes to create new momentum for his re-election bid by agreeing to a two-month debate before he is formally nominated. However, his halting and disjointed performance on Thursday night sent a wave of panic among Democrats and reopened the debate over whether he should be the nominee.
For 90 minutes, a hoarse-voiced Mr. Biden struggled to deliver a line and countered former President Donald J. Trump’s disingenuous, albeit dishonest, cast of doubt over the current president’s ability to mount a strong and competitive campaign four months earlier. election. Instead of dismissing concerns about his age, Mr. Biden, 81, made it a major issue.
Democrats who have spent months defending the president against doubters — including members of his own administration — traded frantic phone calls and text messages within minutes of the debate as it became clear that Mr. Biden was not at his sharpest. Some took to social media to express their shock over the issue, while others privately discussed what it meant to the party and whether it was too late to persuade the president to ditch the younger candidate.
“Biden is going to face a lot of calls to step aside,” said a veteran Democratic strategist who has publicly supported Mr. Biden. “Joe has deep affection among Democrats. It’s dried up.”
“The party is there to win,” the Democrat continued. “People on stage with Trump can’t win. Fear of Trump prevents criticism of Biden. Now that same fear will cause him to step down.
The purpose of Mr. Biden’s acceptance of the general election debate earlier than it has been held in the history of the presidency is to realign the contest as a choice between him and criminals who are trying to overturn the election and will destroy American democracy if he is given the power of the president again. Mr. Biden left the CNN studios in Atlanta rather than face a referendum on himself and his capacity that will reverberate for days if not longer.
Mr. Trump, 78, seemed to coast through the debate with little trouble, even when he rattled off a single lie without being effectively challenged. He appeared confident as he avoided the very same behavior that marred him during his first debate with Mr. Biden in 2020, seemingly content to make his opponent difficult.
“Guys, the Dems need to nominate someone else – before it’s too late,” Andrew Yang, who is challenging Mr. Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020, wrote on social media before the debate ended, adding the hashtag #swapJoeout.
Van Jones, a former White House aide to President Barack Obama and a prominent liberal voice, predicted that there would be new discussions on this. “There are a lot of people who would like to see him consider taking a different course now,” Mr Jones said on CNN after the debate.
Online discussions were filled with similar assessments during the first half hour of the show. “Sorry, I voted for President Biden, but now this is a disaster,” wrote Mike Murphy, an anti-Trump Republican. He added: “On a scale of 1 to 10 – if it continues – the explosion of panic in the Democratic Party will reach 28 tmmrw.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House aide to Mr. Trump who split with him, said, “It’s worse than I think a lot of people think.”
Mr. Biden’s advisers have long dismissed talk of him quitting, dismissing the talk as unjustified nervousness even as he has trailed Mr. Trump in the battleground states needed for victory this fall. Biden’s aides and allies have repeatedly challenged the polls and pointed out that predictions of a Democratic defeat in the recent election were overblown.
No incumbent president has dropped out of the race until late in the campaign cycle, and there is no consensus on what will happen if they do. Democrats on Thursday night envisioned a scenario that would require party elders like Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina to intervene with the president, although there was no indication that anyone else would. will agree to do so.
Other Democrats say they fear it’s too late and that Mr. Biden won’t listen to anyone except his wife, Jill Biden, who has endorsed another race. The president’s team finished the evening knowing that the task of the next few days was to silence the talk and rally the party behind the beleaguered leader.
