One day after President Joe Biden stammered through his debate performance, disappointed Democrats — friends, Congress members and strategists alike — questioned why the president is running again and how he was allowed on stage.
Democrats had hoped the debate would serve as a launch for the Biden campaign, which largely went unchallenged. Officials viewed the night as the opportunity to see if the 81-year-old president was up for another term, let alone a campaign. But, have Biden mumbled, lost his thought, and seemed out-of-place, his biggest backers now wonder about his future.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who considers Biden his “friend” was blunt in his assessment.
“I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election,” he wrote Monday morning.
“If there was ever a time that the world needed an America at its best, led by its best, it is now — for great dangers and opportunities are now upon us. A younger Biden could have been that leader, but time has finally caught up with him. And that was painfully and inescapably obvious on Thursday.”
And Friedman wasn’t the only Biden confidant to feel that way.
“There are going to be discussions about if he should continue,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, moments after the debate.
Another former Obama adviser-turned CNN analyst, Van Jones, praised Biden as being a “good man,” but “failed” to reassure the country that he could confidently serve as commander-in-chief.
“We’re still far from our convention and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that,” Jones said.
Crestfallen former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill told MSNBC that she felt sorry for the president: “I’m not the only one whose heart is breaking right now. There’s a lot of people who watched this tonight and felt terribly for Joe Biden.” She added: “I don’t know if things can be done to fix this.”
“He had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age,” she continued. “And he failed at that tonight.”
Members of his own party also questioned Biden’s re-election bid after watching his debate performance.
“I think we have some decisions to make as a party. We’ve got to have that discussion immediately,” Massachusetts Rep Stephen Lynch, who endorsed Biden in 2020, told the Wall Street Journal after Thursday’s debate. “I love him. He’s such a good and decent man, but that performance last night was dreadful.”
An anonymous Democratic member of the House opined to Politico that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should consider “a combined effort” to push the president out of the 2024 race, adding: “The movement to convince Biden to not run is real.”
“I’m on my knees praying it’s not too late to replace him,” another Democrat told the Wall Street Journal.
Yet another Democratic lawmaker told NBC News that Biden’s debate performance signaled that he needed to step down: “This was like a champion boxer who gets in the ring past his prime and needs his corner to throw in the towel.”
It’s “time to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee,” another Democratic lawmaker told the outlet.
Mega-donor for Biden and the Democratic Party Mark Buell wondered to the New York Times: “Do we have time to put somebody else in there?” He clarified that he wasn’t calling for the president’s resignation but placed an onus on Biden’s party to listen to the public: “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.”
Vice President Kamala Harris came to Biden’s defense after the debate, admitting he got off to a “slow start,” but finished strong. She butted heads with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who pointed out that fellow Democrats called Biden’s performance a “disaster” and a “trainwreck.”
“I got the point that you’re making about a one-and-a-half hour debate tonight,” Harris pushed back. “I‘m talking about three-and-a-half years of performance in work that has been historic.”
Others in his party also rushed to Biden’s defense.
Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman reminded X users about his own comeback from his own heavily scrutinized debate performance in 2022 that deepened viewers’ concerns over his health.
“I refuse to join the Democratic vultures on Biden’s shoulder after the debate,” Fetterman tweeted. “No one knows more than me that a rough debate is not the sum total of the person and their record.”
Social media users also remarked on Biden’s stumbles, expressing fear that he was unfit for office.
“It was sad and a bit scary to see Joe Biden looking so old, pale, forgetful and unable to speak properly,” one X user wrote.
Another tweeted sarcastically about the president’s age, writing: “I think the most shocking part of the debate was Joe Biden claiming he could swing a golf club.”
Others asserted he was unprepared or poorly set up for the un-fact-checked forum.
Referring to Biden’s debate prep at Camp David, another user said: “Apparently for a full week before the debate Biden was practicing answering all the asked questions and he still performed like that lol.”
Yet another believed that the president should not have participated in the debate, placing some blame on CNN: “The media literally engineered a way to avoid any accountability for the lies Trump was sure to tell. Biden never should’ve agreed to debate him in the first place. There was no upside to this.”
Another seemed to give up on the two major party candidates in favor of a different idea, writing: “I am voting independent. How bad can Kennedy really be?”
