Last Thursday’s presidential debate could not have gone much worse for President Joe Biden.
It went so poorly that the narrative of the past several days is asking if Biden, who will turn 82 in November, is up for four more years and whether he should seriously consider not running. Biden’s voice was weak and shaky and he stumbled through answers on more than one occasion. Before the night was even over, Democrats were legitimately freaking out, and the post-debate coverage was full of respected analysts questioning Biden’s future in the race.
A presidential candidate having an awful debate performance is not unprecedented. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama all had off nights, and very few reasonable voices suggested they be replaced on the ticket.
But that’s not the case here.
It’s hard to find any Democratic leaders willing to publicly question Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave full-throated endorsements of Biden in the hours after the debate despite admitting he didn’t have a good night.
But some influential voices are wondering if Biden can win. Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” a show that Biden reportedly watches, praised Biden’s presidency, but said, “We saw last night why this race has been close, and why I fear Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, unless things change.”
That was Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, Scarborough tweeted about his wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski: “Mika strongly disagreed with my opinion that the President should consider withdrawing from the race. She rightly believes that Joe Biden’s bad night is nothing compared to Trump’s terrible decade. Mika is also correct that Joe Biden’s life has been defined time and time again by picking himself up off the ground after being knocked down politically and personally. And yes. He could do it again.”
David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, wrote, “Biden has rightly asserted himself that the voters regard this election not only as a debate about global affairs, the environment, civil rights, women’s rights, and other matters of policy, but as a referendum on democracy itself. For him to remain the Democratic candidate, the central actor in that referendum, would be an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment.”
Remnick added, “It is entirely possible that the debate will not much change the polls; it is entirely possible that Biden could have a much stronger debate in September; it is not impossible to imagine that Trump will find a way to lose. But, at this point, should Biden engage the country in that level of jeopardy? To step aside and unleash the admittedly complicated process of locating and nominating a more robust and promising ticket seems the more rational course and would be an act of patriotism. To refuse to do so, to go on contending that his good days are more plentiful than the bad, to ignore the inevitability of time and aging, doesn’t merely risk his legacy — it risks the election and, more important, puts in peril the very issues and principles that Biden has framed central to his Presidency and essential to the future.”
The New York Times editorial board was blunt: “To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race.” The board wrote, “If the race comes down to a choice between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, the sitting president would be this board’s unequivocal pick. That is how much of a danger Mr. Trump poses. But given that very danger, the stakes for the country and the uneven abilities of Mr. Biden, the United States needs a stronger opponent to the presumptive Republican nominee. To make a call for a new Democratic nominee this late in a campaign is a decision not taken lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Mr. Trump’s challenge to the values and institutions of this country and the inadequacy of Mr. Biden to confront him.”
The Washington Post editorial board suggested Biden spend this past weekend at Camp David doing some “soul-searching.”
But while major media voices, even those whose message actually might reach Biden’s ear, are calling for Biden to not run, the word is Biden and his campaign are plowing forward.
The New York Times’ Michael D. Shear wrote that Biden and those close to him are treating Thursday’s debate the way a police officer handles a crowd around a car crash: “Nothing to see here.”
Shear wrote Sunday, “According to the talking points being repeated by the president’s aides and surrogates, the debate was a 90-minute blip in a long campaign. Mr. Biden didn’t have ‘a great night,’ as he told donors Saturday, but fund-raising is going strong and he has already bounced back.”
The Washington Post’s Toluse Olorunnipa, Tyler Pager and Michael Scherer wrote, “Publicly, President Biden’s allies have spent the past several days aggressively downplaying his missteps in Thursday’s debate by assailing the ‘bedwetting brigade’ of nervous Democrats, highlighting a record influx of campaign donations and noting the long history of incumbents who stumbled during their first debates.”
And what about privately? The Post writes, “They have worked the phones to reassure nervous donors, pleaded with concerned lawmakers to keep their powder dry, and huddled with colleagues to commiserate — while steeling themselves for a battle that could determine not only whether Biden wins the election in November, but whether he will be on the ballot at all.”
Politico described it as Biden being in “damage control mode.”
However, The Wall Street Journal reported, “Over the weekend, some of the biggest Democratic donors in the financial world sent word to the Biden campaign that they would continue to back the president, and that they had little appetite to explore alternative candidates.”
Donors might have the most influence of all. Well, besides Biden’s family, which reportedly is fully behind him fighting on.
The New York Times’ Katie Rogers and Peter Baker wrote, “Mr. Biden huddled with his wife, children and grandchildren at Camp David while he tried to figure out how to tamp down Democratic anxiety. While his relatives are acutely aware of how poorly he did against former President Donald J. Trump, they argued that he could still show the country that he is capable of serving for another four years.”
Rogers and Baker added, “One of the strongest voices imploring Mr. Biden to resist pressure to drop out was his son Hunter Biden, whom the president has long leaned on for advice, said one of the people informed about the discussions, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal deliberations. Hunter Biden wants Americans to see the version of his father that he knows — scrappy and in command of the facts — rather than the stumbling, aging president Americans saw on Thursday night.”
