President Biden had hoped to gain new momentum in his reelection bid by agreeing to the debate two months before he was officially nominated. But his choppy, incoherent speech on Thursday night sparked panic among Democrats and reignited debate about whether he should even be the nominee.
For 90 minutes, a raspy-voiced Mr. Biden struggled to deliver a sharp but deeply disingenuous rebuttal to former President Donald J. Trump and to voice comments that questioned whether a sitting president could run a vigorous, competitive campaign with four months to go until the election. Rather than brushing off concerns about his age, Mr. Biden, 81, made it central to the issue.
Democrats, who for months had been defending the president from doubters — including members of his administration — as Biden's slump became clear, erupted in phone calls and text messages within minutes of the debate's start. Some expressed shock at Biden's predicament on social media, while others privately wondered what it meant for the party and whether it was too late to persuade the president to step aside and put forward a younger candidate.
“There are growing calls for Biden to step down,” said a veteran Democratic strategist who has strongly supported Biden in public. “Joe had a deep well of affection among Democrats, and that has dried up.”
“Political parties exist to win,” the Democrat continued. “No man who stands on stage with Trump can win. Fear of Trump stifled criticism of Biden. Now, that same fear will fuel calls for his resignation.”
Biden's acceptance of the earliest general election debate in presidential history was intended to reframe the debate as a choice between himself and a felon who would try to overturn the results of an election and destroy American democracy if he were to hold office again. Instead, Biden left CNN's studios in Atlanta facing a referendum on himself and his abilities that would reverberate for days, if not longer.
Trump, 78, seemed to navigate the debates with little difficulty, churning out one falsehood after another without being effectively refuted. He exuded confidence and seemed content to watch his opponent struggle with his own difficulties while avoiding the overly authoritative manner that marred him in his first debate with Biden in 2020.
“Folks, the Democrats need to nominate someone else before it's too late,” Andrew Yang, Biden's 2020 Democratic nominee rival, posted on social media before the debate ended, using the hashtag “#swapJoeout.”
Van Jones, a former White House aide to President Barack Obama and a leading liberal voice, predicted a new debate on the issue. “I think a lot of people would hope that Trump would consider a different approach now,” Jones told CNN after the debate.
In the first 30 minutes of the showdown, online discussion was flooded with similar assessments. “Sorry, but I'm voting for President Biden, but so far it's a disaster,” wrote anti-Trump Republican Mike Murphy, adding, “On a scale of 1 to 10, if things continue like this, the panic explosion within the Democratic Party will hit 28 by tomorrow.”
“The situation is worse than most people imagined,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former White House aide who broke with Trump.
Biden's advisers have long rejected any discussion of him dropping out of the race, dismissing such talk as unfounded fears even as he is lagging behind Trump in battleground states needed to win this fall. Biden's aides and allies have repeatedly disputed polls and said recent projections of Democratic losses have been exaggerated.
A sitting president has never before dropped out of a race so late in the campaign, and there is little agreement on what would happen if he did. Democrats on Thursday night were imagining a scenario in which party elders such as Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina would have to intervene against the president, but there was no indication that any of them would go along with that.
Other Democrats said they worried it was too late, and that Biden would listen to no one except his wife, Jill Biden, who has strongly supported running again.The president's team ended the night knowing that the challenge in the coming days will be to quiet those debates and rally the party behind its embattled leader.