In the wake of Thursday night’s first presidential debate, an old question resurfaced with new urgency: Should Biden drop out of the race?
The 90-minute debate was hosted by CNN and moderated by the organizations Jake Tapper And Dana Bashas if Vanity fair‘S Bess Levin wrote, “a night of terror that left everyone concerned about the fate of the country/world/universe lying on the floor in the fetal position with no one able to get up.”
Chairperson Joe BidenHis performance was littered with moments that Democrats hoped to avoid; he looked old and tired. His opponent, the former president Donald Trumplie after lie—about abortion, taxes, immigration, etc. CNN does not provide real-time fact-checking. At times, like when septuagenarians and octogenarians brag about their golf games, it is really hard to see that information.
Biden addressed his showdown with Trump and referenced his performance at a campaign event in North Carolina on Friday. “Did you see Trump last night? I guess he set – and I mean that honestly – a new record for the most lies in a debate,” Biden said. He continued: “Everyone, I no longer walk as easily as before. I don’t speak as fluently as before. I don’t argue as well as I used to. But I know what I know: I know how to tell the truth.
After the debate, according to a report from The Daily Beast, Biden’s campaign spokesperson, Seth Schustertexted multiple media outlets, “Of course he doesn’t give up.”
The mechanism to replace Biden will be difficult, to say the least, but not impossible. Calls for Biden to withdraw from the race and release all the pledged delegates he has amassed—3,894 of 3,937 pledged delegates so far, according to AP tally—were swift and strict.
New York Times “The President appeared Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant,” the editorial board wrote. He had difficulty explaining what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocative actions. He fought to hold Trump accountable for his lies, failures, and cold plans. More than once he struggled to finish a sentence.”
The burden is on the Democratic Party to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of one individual, the board continued.
The time also published two other opinion articles during the debate, one by the columnist Nicholas Kristof titled “President Biden, I’ve Seen Enough” and another in it Thomas Friedman “I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in my hotel room in Lisbon and it made me cry,” he wrote. “I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.”
According to Axios, a prominent Democrat who often speaks to the president said those around Biden should tell him the “absolute truth about where he stands” and that “loyalty does not mean blind loyalty.”
It didn’t take long for Biden’s supporters to jump in and try to reassure a nervous American public.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know,” the former president said. Barack Obama posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday afternoon. “But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary people all his life and someone who only cares about himself.”
