The Joe Biden’s performance in the presidential debate with Donald Trump It has been so unfortunate for the Democratic candidate that even his vice president has acknowledged that “he was a little slow” at the beginning of the televised face-to-face. “Biden had the weakest performance since John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon started the tradition of televised debates in 1960,” CNN has explained.
The question many are now asking is whether the Democratic Party will look for an alternative candidate: “Will they replace Joe Biden?” was the big question that pervaded the atmosphere on Thursday after a black night for the President of the United States in Atlanta, where he clearly lost the first presidential debate against his rival, the former republican president Donald Trump. All eyes were on the vigor of Biden, who at 81 is the oldest president in history, and the worst omens came true.
Analyst Nicole Wallace, from the MSNBC network, explained what the procedure would be for a candidate (Biden) to abandon the presidential race by giving up his delegates. The fact that a liberal network floated this idea of whether a sitting president running for re-election can be replaced after winning the nomination shows how Democrats are rushing after the debate to do something radical.
What happened in the debate
Despite having locked himself away for almost a week with his team to prepare for a historic day, he appeared hoarse-voiced, slow, tired and with difficulty finishing some sentences. Trump, only three years younger, repeated many of the lies that characterize him and avoided answering the moderators’ most uncomfortable questions, but he seemed more restrained than expected and much more energetic than his rival.
In a lapidary final shot of the debate, First Lady Jill Biden was shown helping her husbandwho had great difficulty getting down the steps from the stage and saying goodbye to the moderators. Panic had taken hold of Biden’s campaign in the middle of the debate and his team was quick to justify the president’s illness by saying he had been sick with the flu during the week, but the damage had already been done.
Republicans, exultant
The Republicans did not take long to make firewood from the fallen tree and several Trump allies quickly came out to claim victory in the ‘spin room’, a press room installed in a stadium next to the CNN studios where the face-to-face was broadcast. “This man cannot continue as president of the United States, I am very worried about this country.. “I don’t think he can continue even for the six months he has left in office,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, who faced Trump in the Republican primary and is now one of his biggest acolytes.
Republican senators Marco Rubio and Tim Scott paced the floor repeating that it was a landslide victory for Trump, who both aspire to be vice presidents for a second term. Matt Gaetz, a congressman from the most radical wing of the Republicans, was quick to verbalize to the press what many were thinking. He said that within a few days an internal battle will begin in the Democratic Party to replace the president.
The proof of the disbelief within the Democratic ranks is that tIt took several minutes for Biden’s allies to appear together before the press in the ‘spin room’, where they tried to convey an optimistic message that contrasted with their long faces.
Among them were the Senator Raphael Warnock and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, but all eyes were on the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, one of the most prominent faces of the Democratic Party. The press asked him several times if he is ready to replace Biden but he flatly denied that he was going to take the step: “He has my support. We are with him,” he said seriously.
The official vision of the Democratic campaign, according to a statement, is that the president presented “a positive and winning vision for the future of the United States” against a Trump who wants to end democracy and the right to abortion. This debate, unusually early given that the campaigns have not yet formally started, was especially decisive given that it came at a time when both candidates were tied in the polls and knew that any mistake could tip the balance.
According to a first CNN poll published at the end of the meeting, Trump was the clear winner for 67% of those surveyed. The truth is that the Democratic Party still has to hold its national convention next August in Chicago to formally name its nominee. Technically there would be time for a replacement, but it would be something never before seen.