By Reagan Reese
It took all of thirty minutes for Democrats to begin pontificating about replacing President Joe Biden on the ballot in November during Thursday night’s presidential debate.
Months before they were expected to, Biden and former President Donald Trump met under unique circumstances. CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper moderated the faceoff in a studio, with no live audience, commercial breaks and mic cuts. Though Biden stayed out of the public eye for a week in order to prep, the 81-year-old’s age was on full display as he failed to provoke a rather controlled former Trump.
“Every Democrat I know is texting that this is bad,” Obama campaign alumnus Ravi Gupta tweeted just 15 minutes into the debate.
“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,” Gupta continued.
Every Democrat I know is texting that this is bad. 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.
— Ravi Gupta (@RaviMGupta) June 28, 2024
Thirty minutes into the debate, the New York Times published an op-ed about the “high anxiety” its deputy opinion editor was hearing from senior Democrats. The piece characterized his performance as a “disaster.”
“I love Joe Biden, he didn’t do well at all,” Van Jones, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, said during a solemn CNN post-debate show.
“We are still far from our convention and there is still time to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that,” Jones added.
Several minutes into the debate, the president’s first big lie came as he claimed that he is the first president in the past decade not to have Americans die overseas. Biden failed to mention the 13 service members who were killed during his administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021.
“When he was president, there were still killing people in Afghanistan, and he didn’t do anything about that,” Biden said. “When he was president, we still found ourselves in a position where you had a notion that we were the safe country. The truth is, I’m the only president [in] this century, that doesn’t have any — this decade — that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world.”
Moments later, the president stumbled before freezing up as he answered a question about the national debt and taxes. Tapper eventually came to the president’s rescue, abruptly cutting Biden off and tossing a question to Trump.
“We would be able to wipe out his debt, we’d be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do, childcare, eldercare, making sure that we continue to strengthen our healthcare system, making sure that we are able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I have been able to do with the COVID – excuse me, dealing with everything we have to do with,” the president continued before pausing and looking down.
“Look, we finally beat Medicare,” Biden said after pausing for several moments.
Biden malfunctions, Jake Tapper saves him pic.twitter.com/oUkv5vqKeR
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 28, 2024
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump said after Biden trailed off at one point.
The incidents sent Democrats into a tailspin. Many took to Twitter and the media to call for the president to step down with just weeks to go until the Democratic National Convention, where the party could conceivably replace Biden.
“Guys, the Dems should nominate someone else — before it’s too late,” former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang wrote on twitter.
Guys, the Dems should nominate someone else – before it’s too late. #swapJoeout
— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) June 28, 2024
“I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted.
I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention. Someone like @gretchenwhitmer or @SherrodBrown or @SecRaimondo could still jump in and beat Trump.
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) June 28, 2024
Politico published an article detailing Democrats’ “confusion and concern” as they watched Biden on the debate stage.
“Biden is toast – calling it now,” Jay Surdukowski, a Democratic activist, told Politico.
“Time for an open convention,” a prominent operative texted the outlet.
The media attempted to come to Biden’s rescue about an hour into the forum, reporting that the president was suffering from a cold as he spoke with a noticeably raspy voice. Politico noted that there was no mention of Biden having a cold ahead of the debate.
NEW: Two sources familiar with the situation say “President Biden has a cold.”
— Kelly O’Donnell (@KellyO) June 28, 2024
Ahead of the debate, Biden spent time with close advisers prepping at Camp David where a mock stage was set up. The aides reportedly trained Biden to “trigger” Trump by bringing up the topic of his felony conviction and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, sources told NBC News.
Instead, the pair did not fall into their normal sparring and bickering (until a concluding argument about golf handicaps).
Trump tries jujitsu in answering J6 question:
On January 6, nobody was coming through the border.
On January 6, we were energy independent.
On January 6, we had the lowest regulations ever.
On January, 6, we were respected all over the world.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) June 28, 2024
An hour after the debate, CNN continued to talk about the “panic” setting across the Democratic party following Biden’s debate performance.
“Does he know how bad this was?” Erin Burnett, a CNN anchor, asked as she watched Biden at his post-debate party.
