In the immediate aftermath of the first presidential debate Thursday night, an old question emerged with renewed urgency: Should Biden drop out of the race?
The 90-minute debate, hosted by CNN and moderated by the organizations’ Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, was, as Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin wrote, “a terrible night that left people who care about the fate of the country/world/universe on the floor in a fetal position from which no one has gotten up.”
President Joe Biden’s performance was rife with the very moments Democrats were hoping to avoid; he seemed old and frazzled. His competitor, former president Donald Trump, told lie after lie after lie—on abortion, taxes, immigration, etc. There was no real-time fact-checking provided by CNN. At some points, like when the septuagenarian and octogenarian were bragging about their golf game, it was simply difficult to watch.
Biden mentioned the showdown with Trump and addressed his performance at a campaign event in North Carolina on Friday. “Did you see Trump last night? My guess he set—and I mean this sincerely—a new record for the most lies told in a single debate,” Biden said. He continued, “Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.
After the debate, per reporting from The Daily Beast, Biden campaign spokesperson, Seth Schuster, texted multiple media outlets, “Of course he’s not dropping out.”
The mechanics of replacing Biden would be difficult, to say the least, though not impossible. Those calling for Biden to drop out of the race and release all the pledged delegates he has accumulated—3,894 of 3,937 committed so far, according to a tally by AP—were swift and stern.
The New York Times editorial board wrote, “The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.”
“The burden rests on the Democratic Party,” the board continued, “to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of a single man.”
The Times also published two other opinion pieces during the debate fallout, one by columnist Nicholas Kristof entitled “President Biden, I’ve Seen Enough” and another in which Thomas Friedman writes, “I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. 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.”
According to Axios, a well-known Democrat who often talks to the president said that those who are surrounding Biden should tell him “the absolute truth about where he is” and that “loyalty doesn’t mean blind loyalty.”
It didn’t take long for those in Biden’s corner to jump in and attempt to reassure an anxious American public.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know.” former president Barack Obama posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday afternoon. “But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”
“Last night didn’t change that,” Obama continued, “and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”
Current Democratic Party leaders also came to the president’s defense.
US House Representative and former speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly said that she doesn’t think Biden should step aside and that she did not know of anyone pushing him to do so. She acknowledged that “from a performance standpoint, it wasn’t great.” House Minority Leader and US House Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York agrees that Biden shouldn’t step down.
Democratic Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, who has been a key ally to Biden, told reporters, “That was Strike 1. You always get three strikes.” When he sees the president, Clyburn said, his advice will be to “stay the course.”
Trump and his team don’t seem to think Biden will be leaving the ticket, and he doesn’t seem keen on the possibility.
Just a few weeks ago, Trump said of his opponent, “I doubt he will even be running frankly, I just can’t even imagine it.” In a post-debate interview with Fox News, Trump changed his tune, saying that he thinks Biden “will be the nominee.”
“Democrats are in absolute disarray,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes told NBC News. “They fear that they might have made a terrible mistake. I hope that no one lets them off the hook. If they think they can just walk away from Joe Biden, it would be a level of dishonesty that they should be called out on.”
During a back-and-forth on Thursday, Trump credited Biden as his reason for running in the first place.
“I wish he was a great president because I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be at one of my many places enjoying myself,” Trump said after being asked about whether he would accept the results of this election (to which he responded: “if the election is fair”). “I don’t mind being here, but the only reason I’m here is he’s so bad as a president that I’m going to make America great again.”
On Friday, Biden seemed passionate about continuing on in the race, even with all the noise around his faulty debate performance. “I give you my word as a Biden. I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job. Because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high.”
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