The American press, polls, columnists and even members of the Democratic Party itself acknowledged it. US President Joe Biden had bet that a debate with Republican Donald Trump would boost his moribund re-election campaign. But his bet seemed to fail miserably on Thursday, after his disastrous performance – with a speech punctuated by lapses, fits of sickly coughing and prone to repetition – accelerated doubts about his candidacy.
Registered voters who watched Thursday’s debate between Biden and Trump said the Republican performed better, 67% to 33%. Before the debate, the same voters said they expected Trump to perform better than Biden, 55% to 45%.
A perception that the American press reflected in its headlines. “Biden’s complications in the debate alarm Democrats,” was the headline of The New York Times this Friday morning. Along the same lines, The Washington Post highlighted on its cover: “Democrats panic before Biden and doubt his future.”
A poor evaluation of Biden’s performance shared even in the Democratic ranks. “He seemed a little disoriented. He grew louder as the debate progressed. But by then, I think he had already panicked,” said David Axelrod, a veteran Democratic operative and CNN political commentator. Axelrod also gave voice to a conversation taking place among many Democrats Thursday night: “There are going to be discussions about whether it should continue.”
In fact, two of the New York Times’ most notable columnists, Nicholas Kristoff and Thomas Friedman, wrote directly that Biden needs to step aside, and Democrats need to look for another candidate. “President Biden, I have seen enough. He should withdraw from the race,” Kristoff wrote, as did Friedman: “Joe Biden is a good man and a good President. He must withdraw from the race.”
“It’s hard to argue that Biden should be our nominee,” one operative who has worked on campaigns at all levels for more than a decade told CNN. Democrats even weighed in on who might be his nominee: “If I was Gavin (Newsom) or Gretchen (Whitmer), I’d be making calls tonight,” one said.
After the debate, Newsom dismissed calls for Biden to be removed from the Democratic ticket. “I will never turn my back on President Biden. I don’t know any Democrat in my party who would do that,” he said when asked about a rumor of Democrats possibly open to replacing Biden as the party’s nominee.
Although Biden himself, according to campaign agents, refuses to drop out and has even committed to a second debate with Trump on September 10, the truth is that names have already begun to be mentioned as possible candidates to replace the Democratic candidate.
In that sense, Kristoff himself wrote on Thursday night in X: “I would like Biden to reflect on his performance in the debate and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, leaving the election of the Democratic candidate in the hands of the convention . “Someone like Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan Governor), Sherrod Brown (Senator) or Gina Raimondo (US Secretary of Commerce) could still jump in and beat Trump.”
Also in the mix are Biden’s running mate and vice president Kamala Harris; Georgia senator Raphael Warnock; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker; and California Rep. Ro Khanna.
Others whom Biden bested during the party’s 2020 presidential primary could also try again, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, as well as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
But if Biden were to abruptly drop out of the race, conservative groups have suggested they would file lawsuits across the country, potentially challenging the legality of the Democratic candidate’s name on the ballot.
But Elaine Kamarck, a governance studies scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, author of a book on the presidential nominating process and a member of the policymaking arm of the Democratic National Committee, said courts have consistently stayed out of political primaries as long as the parties organizing them do not do anything that contradicts other constitutional rights, such as suppressing voters based on race.
“From a constitutional point of view, it is very clear that it is the responsibility of the party… The issue of nominating someone to represent a political party is a matter of the political party,” he added.
