The aftermath of President Joe Biden’s performance in the first presidential debate has ignited a wave of calls for his withdrawal, even from his allies and supporters. While former President Donald Trump reveled in his characteristic bravado, despite peddling falsehoods and evading policy questions, Biden stumbled through his sentences, exhibited moments of cognitive lapses, and lacked the energy that had long raised questions about his physical capacity to endure the rigors of the presidency for another four years.
Panic began to grip the ranks of the Democratic Party even before the debate concluded. Reports emerged of party leaders contemplating a drastic overhaul of the presidential campaign. Within minutes of the debate’s commencement, as it became evident that the raspy-voiced Biden was not going to excel, Democrats who had staunchly defended him for months began frantically contacting each other, exchanging messages, and discussing whether it was too late to convince Biden to step aside and endorse a younger candidate, according to The New York Times.
A seasoned Democratic strategist described the debate as a turning point, suggesting that Biden’s well of support had run dry. “Biden is about to face a crescendo of calls to step aside. Joe had a deep well of affection among Democrats. It has run dry. Parties exist to win. The man on the stage with Trump cannot win. The fear of Trump stifled criticism of Biden. Now that same fear is going to fuel calls for him to step down,” the strategist confided to the newspaper.
The Democrats are scrambling to make sense of the debate’s fallout. While party leaders continue to publicly support Biden, there are voices considering alternative options and acknowledging the damage the debate has inflicted on the campaign. A Democrat congressman informed The Times that the debate was a “disaster”. The congressman revealed that discussions regarding the need for a new presidential nominee had arisen among fellow lawmakers watching the debate together.
Former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill told MSNBC that the debate constituted “a crisis” and disclosed that her phone was “blowing up” with calls from lawmakers, party officials, and donors expressing concerns about the future of the campaign. McCaskill further asserted, “Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight, and he didn’t do it. He had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age, and he failed at that tonight.”
Mark Buell, a Biden donor, conveyed to The Times that the party had a responsibility to clarify Biden’s intentions. “Do we have time to put somebody else in there? Democratic leadership has a responsibility to go to the White House and clearly show what America’s thinking, because democracy is at stake here and we’re all nervous,” Buell stated.
A Democratic operative suggested to Politico that an open convention was the necessary course of action. An open convention implies that the party’s nominee is not determined by the primary elections but through negotiations at the party’s final convention. A major Democratic donor and Biden supporter told the magazine: “Biden needs to drop out. No question about it.”
Even critics of Trump from the ‘Never Trump’ wing of the American Conservatives, who had rallied behind Biden out of their opposition to Trump, have acknowledged the debate as a disaster. Fergus Cullen, a Never Trumper and former Republican Party leader in New Hampshire, expressed that a poor performance in the debate warranted a new Democratic Party candidate. “Anyone who has watched a parent grow old, frail, and foggy recognizes what they are seeing and knows it only gets worse, at an accelerating rate, from here,” Cullen remarked to the magazine.
While the Democrats are reeling from the debate’s impact, it is unlikely that they can force Biden to step down unless he makes the decision himself. Moreover, it is too late in the election cycle for a change of nominee. “Folks, the facts are if Joe Biden was going to step aside, he would have done so a long time ago. That’s not my opinion. That’s literally the facts. So, no, he won’t be stepping aside tomorrow morning. He’s the nominee, and a number of Dems I suspect will be out defending him over the next few days,” Symone Sanders, a former aide to Vice President Kamala Harris, told The Times.
