Joe Biden's disastrous performance during the first presidential debate against Donald Trump, broadcast last night in the studios of CNN in Atlanta, this threw Democrats “into panic.” All those who have defended the president in office for months, writes the New York Times, they reportedly exchanged messages and phone calls minutes before the televised duel began, when it was already clear that it would be a terrible evening for Biden. Someone would have said “we're screwed” and someone else would have mentioned the possibility that the president would step down. Democrats, we read, were imagining scenarios that would force party leaders such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Pelosi and South Carolina Rep. Clyburn to intervene to push him to step down, even if there was no indication that any of them would agree to do so. do it.
#swapJoeout
Many of them also expressed their dismay on social networks. “Democrats should nominate someone else before it’s too late,” Andrew Yang, Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, wrote on X, adding a hashtag for the occasion: #swapJoeout. Even the director of Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, David Plouffe, said that among Democrats, “there is a lot of concern” after yesterday's performance. In the aftermath of the debate, even the American media and analysts are almost in agreement. “Mr. President, one way to serve the country in 2024 is to announce your retirement and ask the delegates to replace you: this is the safest path for the United States,” we read in the opinion section Daily. Nyt“Biden is a good man and a good president, but he must withdraw from the race,” writes the columnist close to the Democratic candidate Thomas Friedman.
Debate
During the 90 minutes of the debate, a hoarse, tired and confused Biden failed to be incisive. Trump, by comparison, seemed like an energetic lion, able to control his usual aggression, even as he babbled on many issues and repeated various lies. The two men clashed on everything, accusing each other of lying, from the economy to immigration, from the climate to abortion. But what mattered most in the challenge between the two oldest candidates ever – the first 81, the other 78 – was the test of age, that is, of lucidity and physical appearance. And that Biden definitely failed. But who could take his place? Vice President Kamala Harris is perhaps the most credible hypothesis. Or California Governor Gavin Newsom, but also Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. And then there is the ever-acclaimed Michelle Obama, who nevertheless refuses to run. Despite increasingly insistent rumors, a change of candidate about 4 months before the election could prove to be a general failure.
Also read:
