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WASHINGTON.- Panic. Dismay. Perplexity. He first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump left Democrats stunned and in crisis at Biden’s dismal performance, a debacle never seen before. Biden’s team had arrived in Atlanta hoping to capitalize on a victory to break the virtual tie in the polls and open the way to re-election. The president and his team left the stage with a new problem: how to stop the bleeding and face the tsunami of lawsuits. to step aside.
The first hours after the crash showed Democrats stunned, dividedBiden, his campaign and his allies were doing their best to contain the damage from a performance to forget. From the start, with his hoarse and frayed voice, Biden appeared fragile, hesitant, he faltered from the start, never settled down, and in the end ended up amplifying doubts about his age and his vitality to hold on to the presidency for another four years. On the sly, and even before the final bell, donors, strategists, operators and congressmen on Capitol Hill aired in the press, in off the recordan unthinkable scenario before the duel: They were asking Biden to step down and for Democrats to find another candidate.
“I think we did well,” Biden said, after midnight, when answering questions from the press at a Waffle House restaurant, where he went with his wife, the first lady, Jill Biden, to look for food for his campaign employees. Few at that time agreed with that analysis. “It is difficult to debate with a liar,” the president tried.
By then, his allies were doing damage control. Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom were the first two figures in the Biden universe to come out in defense of him in television interviews as soon as the debate ended, in an effort to twist a narrative that was already in place even before the clash ended. The Biden campaign came out to install, with the debate halfway through and after a very weak start, which the president had a cold. It was useless.
“First of all, what we saw is that the president made a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all the issues that matter to the American people. Yes, there was a slow start, but there was a solid finish“,” Harris attempted to defend in a harsh interview with CNN. “And what was very clear throughout the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people. In substance, in policy, in performance, Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong“he continued.
Newsom spoke directly to panicking Democrats: “I think it’s futile and I think it’s unnecessary. We have to dig in and keep our heads up. And as I say, we have this president’s back, You don’t turn your back on him for a single performance. What kind of party does that? It has been a master class“he said of the Biden presidency.
Hillary Clinton was one of the first historical figures to come out to support Biden.
“The decision in this election remains very simple. It’s a choice between someone who cares about you (your rights, your prospects, your future) and someone who only cares about themselves. I will vote for Biden,” he said in a message on X.
But even some Democratic figures very close to Biden acknowledged live that the president was not up to the task. “It was a performance in the debate really disappointing “by Joe Biden,” acknowledged Kate Bedingfield, who handled communications for Biden’s 2020 campaign and was his first White House communications director, in a post-debate panel on CNN.
Biden arrived in Atlanta with a priority mission: to clear up doubts about his mental health and his stamina to endure four more years in the White House. He failed miserably. From the beginning, with a weak voice and a vacant look, the president showed enormous difficulty in reacting and responding to Trump’s attacks, defending his administration or articulating his own positions clearly, forcefully and coherently.
The strategy designed by his campaign to advance the debate, lock himself up for a week in the official residence of Camp David to prepare, and mark a clear contrast with Trump slipped like sand through his fingers with each setback that amplified concerns about his age. In one section of the debate, Biden got tangled – something that happened to him more than once – when answering about the border, and Trump, quick with reflexes, dealt the clearest blow of the night.
“I don’t really know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,” said.
“Democrats consider the unthinkable: it is time for Biden to go,” was the title that opened the edition of the Politico site this morning, an article full of statements in off the record of Democratic strategists and operators who offered a brutal diagnosis of the president’s performance. It was literally impossible to find a positive reading about Biden in the press. A CNN snap poll indicated that 67% said Trump won the debate, compared to 33% who said Biden won. Two of the most notable columnists of the New York TimesNicholas Kristoff and Tom Friedman, wrote directly that the president needs to step aside, and Democrats should find another candidate. (Friedman is also a friend of Biden.)
The debacle began as soon as Biden launched the first sentence with a trembling voice. A few minutes had passed when it became clear that Biden, despite the rules devised by his campaign to protect him, would never find a convincing version, even on issues in which he had a clear advantage, such as abortion or democracy. In a section about the public debt, Trump ignored the question and talked about the border, his favorite topic. It was his strategy. Biden got tangled up, confusing “billionaires” with “millionaires,” and ended with an incomprehensible sentence: “We can make every single person… eligible for what I’ve been able to do with, uh, with Covid, or excuse me, with dealing with everything we had to do with, uh… Look, yeah… we finally beat Medicare”Biden said, before being interrupted by one of the moderators.
“If he defeated Medicare, he defeated it to death. He is destroying Medicare,” he said. Trump was agile, quick on the draw, energetic, and firm, an image that created the contrast he was looking for, even when he displayed the same lies and exaggerations as always.
Very far from the scenario they imagined, the Biden campaign had to recalibrate and go out to reaffirm the next day that Biden will be the Democratic presidential candidate, despite brutal pressure from all fronts. The Axios site described the Democrats’ moment with a war code used by the Armed Forces: “DEFCON 1.”
“Of course he won’t give up,” said Biden campaign spokesman Seth Schuster. But that conversation was already in place, with one big common denominator: the final answer lies with Biden himself.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, president of the Biden campaign, had released a statement a few minutes after the end of the debate that revealed the message that the campaign wanted to install, innocuous and disconnected from reality after Biden’s performance.
“Tonight, President Biden laid out a positive, winning vision for America’s future, a vision in which all Americans have a fair chance to achieve the American dream, in which every one of our rights is protected and in the one our president fights to strengthen our democracy, not tear it down,” Dillon said. “Trump’s performance tonight reminded the American people why he was fired four years ago, and reinforced how much is at stake this November for the future of our country,” he added. Given all that is at stake, a growing chorus of voices called for Biden to step aside.
