ATLANTA – Above all, Joe Biden allies wanted him to demonstrate strength and energy on the debate stage to help end questions about the 81-year-old Democrat’s physical and mental acuity.
But on the biggest stage in US politics on Thursday night, Biden failed to live up to his modest expectations.
And at the end of 90 minutes Confrontation, the Democratic president’s allies — party strategists and ordinary voters — went into full panic after a debate performance punctuated by repeated stumbles, uncomfortable pauses and a calm speaking style that was often difficult to understand. Publicly and privately, Democrats have questioned whether the party could or should replace it as the party’s presidential nominee against former Republican President Donald Trump, 78, this fall.
“I’m not the only one whose heart is broken right now. A lot of people watched this tonight and felt very sorry for Joe Biden,” former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC. “I don’t know if anything can be done to fix this.”
For now, the biggest question for Biden is whether the damage is permanent. Many voters are still not tuned in to an election that is still more than four months away. The president and his allies have millions of dollars that have yet to be spent on advertising and swing state infrastructure. And there is precedent for recovering difficult debate performances, including by Barack Obama recover from an unequal encounter with Mitt Romney in 2012. Democrat John Fetterman defeated a Republican rival in 2022 after fighting in a debate several months after suffering a stroke.
Biden’s re-election campaign in 2024 was always based on the bet that voters would end up supporting an 81-year-old politician with weak approval ratings, in a rematch that few Americans want. Despite such responsibilities, Biden’s team insisted he was uniquely positioned to prevent Trump from returning to the White House – just as he did four years ago.
They had long predicted that Biden’s winning political bloc would eventually embrace the Democratic president after being sufficiently reminded of Trump’s chaotic leadership. But there were few signs of such confidence after Biden’s dismal debate performance.
“It was a slow start. This is obvious to everyone. I’m not going to debate that point,” said Vice President Kamala Harris. said on CNN after the debate. “I’m talking about the November pick. I’m talking about one of the most important elections of our collective life.”
Biden’s surrogates were slow to enter the post-debate room in Atlanta. And when they finally emerged, they largely avoided questions from the press. Instead, they criticized Trump’s long list of falsehoods during the debate. Among other things, Trump did not reject these who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Governor of California Gavin NewsomA potential future presidential candidate who was Biden’s most prominent surrogate in the Atlanta press room urged Democrats not to panic.
“I think it’s useless. And I think it’s unnecessary. We have to go in, we have to keep our heads up,” Newsom said in an interview with MSNBC. “We have to have the support of this president. You don’t go back because of a performance. What kind of party does that?
Still, signs of anxiety were apparent as Democrats began openly encouraging the party to find an alternative to Biden. Some party officials pointed to a social media post by former Obama campaign adviser Ravi Gupta.
“Every Democrat I know is texting me how bad this is,” Gupta wrote on X. “Just say it publicly and start the hard work of creating space at the convention for a selection process. I will vote for a corpse instead of Trump, but this is a suicide mission.”
Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden as the party’s nominee without his cooperation or without party officials being willing to rewrite its rules at the August national convention.
The president won an overwhelming majority of Democratic delegates during the state-by-state primary process. And party rules state: “Elected national convention delegates committed to a presidential candidate must, in good conscience, reflect the feelings of those who elected them.”
But the DNC rules don’t have the same strict “faithless delegate” rules that the RNC does, which ignore dissenting votes in violation of a delegate’s pledged position.
Republicans, for their part, were encouraged by Biden’s lackluster performance. But Trump’s campaign co-chair dismissed talk of whether Democrats would try to nominate someone other than Biden.
“There are so many political pundits on “But the only way that can happen is if Joe Biden voluntarily resigns, and he won’t do that.”
Thursday’s debate could be etched in voters’ minds for the foreseeable future, with Biden and Trump not scheduled to meet again on the debate stage for another 75 days.
LaCavita said Trump would be at the next debate “with the bells on.” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz confirmed that Biden would also attend the rematch.
But privately, Biden’s advisers suggested the campaign would never be won or lost in a rally, conversation or debate. They outlined plans to maintain an aggressive schedule in the coming weeks and months.
On Friday, Biden was scheduled to campaign in North Carolina while Harris was in Nevada.
Still, Biden supporters struggled to find any hope in the immediate aftermath of the debate.
“That was the worst performance in the history of televised presidential debates,” Tim Miller, a former Republican strategist turned ardent Biden supporter, said in the spin room, shaking his head in disbelief.
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Miller reported from Washington. AP writers Bill Barrow and Darlene Superville in Atlanta; Jill Colvin in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed.
