The presidential debate that took place on Thursday night (27) in the United States, which brought together current President Joe Biden, candidate for re-election, and his Republican rival Donald Trump, left the Democratic Party on alert.
According to the American press, Biden’s unstable performance, at 81 years old, not only failed to dispel concerns about his capacity for a new term, but also seemed to reinforce them.
During the debate, broadcast and organized by the broadcaster CNNBiden presented certain difficulties in some of his discussion points, stumbled in answers and, at certain moments, seemed to lose the thread.
“Right now, there is a deep, broad, and very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party. It started minutes after the debate began and it continues to this day. It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers. And they are having conversations about the president’s performance, which they think has been disastrous, which they think will hurt other people in the party on the ticket, and they are having discussions about what they should do about it,” CNN commentator John King said during analysis.
“Some of those conversations include, should we go to the White House and ask the president to leave? Other conversations are about whether prominent Democrats should make this request public because they feel this debate was so terrible. They say that at some points in the debate the president improved and found his rhythm, but at the end, during his closing statement, he was a little hesitant,” King said.
Biden’s hoarse voice, attributed to the flu, according to the White House, and his rush to get through some topics, were also aspects that were widely noticed and discussed.
“Within minutes, viewers were stunned to see a frail Biden responding incoherently in a crucial debate for which he reportedly spent days preparing,” quoted the British newspaper Financial Times.
“I just want to say from the bottom of my heart: I love this guy. He’s a good man. He loves his country. He’s doing the best he can. But he had a test to face tonight to restore the confidence of the country and his base. And he failed to do that,” said Van Jones, a journalist at CNN, during analysis of Biden’s performance.
“I think there are a lot of people who will want to see him consider taking a different course now. We are still far from our convention [Convenção do Partido Democrata]and there is time for the party to find a different path, if it [Biden] allow this,” Jones added, saying that “[isso] It wasn’t what we needed from Joe Biden. And it’s personally painful for a lot of people [ver o que aconteceu]. It’s not just panic, it’s pain from what we saw tonight.”
As reported by the agency Reutersat a critical moment in the debate, a Democratic strategist who worked on the president’s 2020 campaign described his situation as a “disaster.” According to the agency, this strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Biden’s performance in the debate was “disqualifying.”
The strategist reportedly told the agency that, after his poor performance, Biden is likely to suffer from a drop in his campaign financing, as voters may begin to show distrust in the president’s capacity for a second term.
A survey conducted by CNN during the debate, he pointed out that 67% of viewers considered Trump the big winner. Only 33% chose Biden.
“He [Biden] was incapable tonight, on the biggest stage he sought”, said Chris Wallace, journalist for CNNin his analysis. “With all that preparation, he was unable to perform at his best. You can’t be in a state where tens of millions of Americans are watching you and end up with nothing; and that’s what he did.” [Biden] did tonight,” said Wallace, who has moderated debates.
On social media, several members of the American media also commented on the president’s poor performance.
“This debate was a complete and utter disaster for Biden. He sounded old. His answers repeatedly got lost, were hard to understand. He would stop in the middle of a sentence and move on to something else. I never thought he would be this bad. Impressive.” wrote on X Chris Cillizzaformer commentator for CNN.
“I’ve watched a lot of Biden’s speeches. I’ve never heard him speak so frailly,” said the website journalist Vox Zack Beauchamp, on X.
Beyond the scenes
Concerns were not limited to behind-the-scenes debates. Democratic voters who watched the debate expressed discomfort with Biden’s performance, while Republicans celebrated, the Times reported. The New York Times. Undecided voters were also perplexed by the Democrat’s performance, said the American newspaper.
“Biden still doesn’t know where he is […] he couldn’t organize his thoughts or make intelligent arguments,” one Democratic voter told Teams.
According to the TeamsDemocrats also highlighted the fragility of Biden’s voice and Trump’s apparent resilience, despite pointing out “many untruths” told by the Republican. The situation caused astonishment and generated discussions about Biden’s ability and even the need to replace him.
“Biden is a candidate in decline. Trump won this debate,” another Democratic voter told Teams. “Probably [os democratas] they will choose someone else [como candidato]”, he added.
In an editorial, the National Review stated that “neither of them [Trump e Biden] explained what they intend to do with power over the next four years. Both were at a loss when asked about the country’s finances. They were more animated when comparing golf handicaps. But Trump sounded like the Trump we’ve known for a long time. […] Biden appeared weak, breathless, decrepit and overwhelmed. His best moments came when he was outraged […] Democrats can barely hide their sense of panic and dread.”
Videos posted on social media after the debate again showed Biden freezing, something that has been occurring with some frequency. This time, the moment occurred while First Lady Jill Biden spoke into the microphone.
Any replacement process would be bureaucratic
According to the newspaper Politicothe Democratic National Committee’s rules do not have a direct mechanism that would allow party leaders to unilaterally remove Biden from the race.
However, if the party is convinced of this decision, even with Biden’s refusal to give up, it would have to begin a process considered by the newspaper as “open and unpredictable of choosing a new candidate”.
This process would begin at the Democratic convention, scheduled to take place in August. The party would need the majority of the 3,900 delegates, of whom Biden received 95% support during the primaries, to reject his nomination and choose another candidate, something that could cause a “storm” within the party. This process is possible because these delegates are not required to support Biden, but traditionally follow the choice made in the primaries.
The newspaper cited names such as current Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, as strong candidates to eventually replace the president in the November elections.
There was also a mention of the name of JB Pritzker, Democratic governor of the state of Illinois. Among these, Harris has the least popularity and internal support, although, citing the Politicalin case of withdrawal, Biden would prefer to endorse the name of his vice president.
There is also a chance that this replacement will occur during the election campaign, with a Biden already chosen by the convention.
However, this process would be more complex and would depend entirely on the president voluntarily withdrawing. The 500-member Democratic committee could then call a special meeting where it would nominate new candidates by a simple majority. In this scenario, the party would face constitutional challenges and discrepancies in the ballots if this idea were to occur too close to November.
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