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Democrats across the country are panicking after President Joe Biden’s underwhelming debate performance against Donald Trump on Thursday, with many privately hoping he will withdraw and allow a younger, more competent candidate to step in.
At least two Democratic operatives responded with images when asked to describe their feelings. A prominent Democratic pollster sent a photo of a baseball coach tapping his arm to signal the need for a pitching change. “Gotta really look at bringing someone in,” said the pollster, who, like virtually all Democrats who spoke to HuffPost, requested anonymity for professional reasons.
A second Democratic strategist responded with a gif of a suicidal anime character. The operative nonetheless balked at the idea of Biden withdrawing because they would not want Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic presidential nominee.
A third Democratic strategist described the debate as “John Fetterman debate-level bad, but somehow worse,” referencing the Pennsylvania senator’s wobbly performance months into his recovery from a stroke.
“Activate [Michigan Governor] Gretchen Whitmer,” the strategist said. “Have Harris take over the ticket.”
A Democrat running in a swing House seat also said they wanted Biden to withdraw from the race, citing concerns about his “lack of energy, lack of mental acuity” in an election with “too much at stake, namely democracy.”
As for how it could affect their race, the candidate said, “I worry it makes the hit on my opponent supporting Trump seem more reasonable when in reality it’s a huge negative.”
Steve Schmidt, a former Republican operative turned anti-Trump writer and consultant, called for a new presidential ticket led by Whitmer, with Maryland Governor Wes Moore as vice president.
“Biden will be a one-term president. He still has the chance to watch a Democrat be inaugurated,” Schmidt wrote on the X social media platform. “There are 68 days” until the Democratic National Convention.
There is tremendous uncertainty over what a plan to replace Biden as nominee at the last minute would look like. Given Biden’s lock on the nomination through pledged convention delegates, Democrats likely would not be able to replace Biden as the nominee without his withdrawal. Then, if he got out of the race, it is not clear how party leaders would ensure an orderly succession plan. Related questions include whether they would rally behind Harris or allow for a contested convention with multiple rival camps.
The Biden campaign indicated the president has no plans to end his campaign.
“President Biden is the only person who has ever beaten Donald Trump. He will do it again,” a Biden campaign adviser said in a statement shortly after midnight. “Donald Trump did not give voters any reason to vote for him tonight. On the issues, the American people are with Joe Biden.”
“Of course he’s not dropping out,” the adviser added.
But the Biden campaign was clearly aware of how his performance would be perceived, releasing messages to reporters that the president had a cold.
Not every Democrat was quite so alarmed by what they saw on the debate stage in Atlanta.
“Undecided voters are different than the vast majority of people who are tweeting right now,” Rebecca Katz, a New York-based Democratic strategist, posted on X. In a follow-up text to HuffPost, Katz said, “Undecided voters are likely still undecided.”
The Biden campaign itself issued a statement touting the substance of the debate as a win for Biden. Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon cited Trump’s remarks in which he stood by his decision to appoint the justices who overturned the national right to abortion, his refusal to say he would accept the results of the election and his record of prioritizing “billionaires over working people.”
“Tonight, President Biden presented a positive and winning vision for the future of America ― one in which every American has a fair shot at the American dream, where every one of our rights are protected and where our president fights to strengthen our democracy ― not to tear it down,” O’Malley Dillon said. “Trump’s performance tonight reminded the American people why they fired him four years ago and reinforced just how high the stakes are this November for the future of our country.”
The Biden campaign subsequently reported that it had had the best “grassroots” fundraising day of the campaign to date, but it was not immediately clear how it was defining “grassroots.” The campaign did not provide dollar estimates of the total haul or number of donations.
But at least one former senior adviser to Biden had a publicly pessimistic verdict about his performance.
“It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden. I don’t think there’s any other way to slice it,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s former communications director, said on CNN after the debate. “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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