After Poor Debate Showing, Rattled Democrats Call On Biden To Step Down

NEW YORK (VINnews) — After Thursday night’s debate was almost unanimously declared a decisive Trump victory, with even the left-wing CNN stating that 67% felt Trump had performed better, many of President Joe Biden’s supporters are now calling on him to step down.

All Biden’s allies wanted was that he demonstrate strength and energy on the debate stage Thursday night to help put to rest questions about the 81-year-old Democrat’s physical and mental acuity.

But on the biggest stage in US politics, Biden did not meet their modest expectations. His voice hoarse from what White House officials told reporters was a cold, Biden hurried through some of his talking points on the debate stage, stumbled over some answers, and trailed off during others.

By the end of the 90-minute showdown, the Democratic president’s allies — party strategists and rank-and-file voters alike — descended into all-out panic following a debate performance punctuated by repeated stumbles, uncomfortable pauses, and a quiet speaking style that was often difficult to understand. Publicly and privately, Democrats questioned whether the party could or should replace him as the party’s presidential nominee against the 78-year-old former president Donald Trump this fall.

Even New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a close associate of Biden, argued the incumbent must be replaced as a candidate in November’s election. In an op-ed titled “President Biden Is My Friend. He Must Bow Out of the Race,” Friedman wrote that the debate “made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime.”

Early in the debate, Biden paused as he was making a point about Medicare and tax reform and seemed to lose his train of thought.

Tax reform would create money to help “strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I was able to do with the, with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we had to do with,” Biden said, pausing. “We finally beat Medicare.”

Trump, whose facial expressions did not hide his derision for Biden’s rambling,  jabbed Biden for being incoherent, saying at one point: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said.”

While Biden struggled, Trump rattled off his political mantras effortlessly, describing how migrants have increased crime rates and Democrats have gone as far as supporting infanticide in abortions. [As espoused by former Virginia governer Ralph Northam]

About halfway through, a Democratic strategist who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign, called it a “disaster.”

“There is no way to spin this. His performance was disqualifying,” a top Democratic fundraiser who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters after the event.

“I expect fundraising to dry up. Money follows enthusiasm,” the fundraiser added. “How can anyone with a straight face say ‘Donate to elect Joe.’”

“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 after the debate, shaking his head in disbelief.

Former Obama campaign aide Ravi Gupta was more blunt, calling for starting the political process for finding a suitable replacement for Biden.

“Every Democrat I know is texting that this is bad,” Gupta wrote on X. “Just say it publicly and begin the hard work of creating space in the convention for a selection process. I’ll vote for a corpse over Trump, but this is a suicide mission.”