Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden at the first presidential debate at Atlanta on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Photo credit: CNN.
Reactions have continued to follow Biden’s performance at the first presidential debate with Donald Trump on Thursday.
According to NBC News on Thursday, Democratic Party’s top fundraisers are privately expressing concern following President Joe Biden’s lackluster debate performance against former President Donald Trump on Thursday.
“Disaster,” remarked a Biden donor who is planning to attend a fundraiser with the president on Saturday in the Hamptons. The donor, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “This is terrible. Worse than I thought was possible. Everyone I’m speaking with thinks Biden should drop out.”
CNBC began receiving worried messages from Democratic campaign donors and fundraisers less than 20 minutes into the 90-minute debate hosted by CNN. “Game over,” said a longtime Democratic campaign advisor, who has been raising money for congressional leaders for over a decade and helped raise funds for Biden’s 2020 White House campaign. The advisor continued, “Biden’s got to leave. He’s got to get out now and if he doesn’t get out we’re going to get f—— crushed.” They mentioned plans to approach Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison on Friday to discuss the debate’s outcome.
An advisor to one of the Democratic Party’s top megadonors described the debate as an “absolute train wreck” for Biden. “Worse than [Ronald] Reagan in ’84 or [George W.] Bush in ‘04 or [Barack] Obama in ’12,” they added.
Biden’s problems in the debate started early. He struggled from the beginning, appearing to lose his train of thought multiple times and pausing for long moments before being cut off by CNN moderators while discussing U.S. health care. “Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the, with the Covid, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look ….” Biden said, trailing off. “Look, if, we’ve finally beat Medicare,” he continued before CNN anchor and moderator Jack Tapper gently moved on, saying, “Thank you, President Biden.”
Several times throughout the debate, the president repeated himself or left long pauses mid-answer. His voice was raspy and quiet, contributing to an overall impression of weakness. Biden’s co-campaign chair Mitch Landrieu told NBC News that the president had a cold, which affected his performance. “I think because of the way people analyze debates, it’s going to be at first about the physical performance,” said Landrieu.
Even Vice President Kamala Harris admitted that Biden was not at his best. “Yes, it was a slow start, but it was a strong finish,” she said on CNN late Thursday.
One of Biden’s more problematic moments came when he answered a question about border security — a key voter issue this election cycle. His response was difficult to follow: “I’m going to continue to move until we get the total ban on the total initiative relative to what we’re going to do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers,” Biden said. Trump seized on Biden’s missteps, saying, “I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Representatives for the Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Replacing Biden on the ticket at this point would be extremely difficult, with less than two months until the Democratic National Convention in August. For a new nominee to be selected, Biden would have to withdraw from the race, leaving the decision to the delegates at the convention.
“It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden. I don’t think there’s any other way to slice it,” said Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director during Biden’s administration until 2023, speaking on CNN. She added, “His biggest issue was to prove to the American people that he had the energy, the stamina — and he didn’t do that.”
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