Biden’s performance against Trump sparked panic and calls for a Plan B

After a debate that Joe Biden barely passed, commentators on US news networks wondered what might come next. Could there be a contested Democratic convention? How would that work? That said, replacing the president may not be an option, but many well-known Democrats are talking about it, encouraged by Biden’s poor debate performance.

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace explained how a candidate can release their delegates. Reporter Joy Reid said someone sent her the rules: “The rules are moving around,” Wallace said, laughing. Reid reiterated, “No one is saying that will happen, it’s very unlikely.”

Under current Democratic Party rules, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace Biden as the party’s nominee without his cooperation or without party officials being willing to rewrite its rules at the national convention in August.

The president won a landslide majority of Democratic delegates during the state-by-state primary process. And party rules state that “delegates elected at the national convention committed to a presidential candidate shall faithfully reflect the sentiments of the people who elected them.”

That said, Democratic convention rules aren’t as strict as Republican ones, which nullify dissenting votes in violation of a delegate’s pledge.

The fact that a network close to Democrats addressed the idea of ​​whether a sitting president running for re-election could be replaced after winning the nomination has led Democrats to rush to post-debate to affirm Biden’s ability to lead the country. And many are wondering if the party should seriously consider what else can be done.

From the start, Biden stumbled in the debate, making it hard to hear him for the first time in the 2024 presidential election, mumbling and mumbling his phrases, some of which – had they been delivered with the intended force – could have been successful. He said Donald Trump has the “morality of a stray cat,” but even that phrase is hard to understand.

Biden challenged the former president to an earlier-than-usual debate in a bid to turn the tide on the presidential race. Biden delivered a State of the Union speech in which he was firm and energetic. And a debate could give his campaign a boost at a time when polls have put him behind Trump.

Rather than a victory lap, or a more normal exchange of views on who claimed to have won the debate, it was clear that Democrats view Biden’s performance as a liability.

Kamala Harris later appeared on CNN and MSNBC to refute and reiterate the reasons why voters should favor Biden. Both she and California Governor Gavin Newsom repeatedly talked about how Trump lied and distracted throughout the debate, and tried to remind voters what Trump’s presidency was like and what it could be like again.

“It was a slow start, no doubt about that, but I think it was a strong finish,” the vice president said on MSNBC before beginning to list Biden’s accomplishments. He added that Biden fights for the people, while Trump fights for the people themselves.

On MSNBC, Newsom called the questions “useless” and “unnecessary.” The conversations are “rabbit holes” that distort Biden’s record and hinder democracy and the nation’s destiny. “We have to support this president,” Newsom said. “You don’t turn your back on him for the sake of a performance. What kind of party is that?”

The endorsement came as Democratic activists, publicly and behind the scenes, were concerned about their prospects after a November debate in which Biden’s age and acerbity, his biggest liabilities, took center stage.

Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign official David Plouffe called the debate “a kind of Defcon 1 moment”.

“What concerns voters the most in these polls, both undecided and base voters, is their age, and that’s even more so tonight,” Plouffe said.

Democrats tried to see how the balance could swing back in Biden’s favor and make his performance in the debates be forgotten in the minds of voters: sending their surrogates to support him, putting strong speakers like Harris or Newsom on morning programs, announcing an initiative, an endorsement or a great idea… anything to change the narrative.

What’s at stake in this election — the fate of democracy — underscores how important Democrats see victory in November, and how worried they are that Biden could lose to Trump, who represents an assault on their most fundamental values.

Former California first lady Maria Shriver said she loves Biden and knows him to be a good person, but the night was “heartbreaking in many ways.” And she added: “This is a great political moment. The Democratic Party is in disarray. It’s going to be a long night.”

Left-wing political columnist Nicholas Kristof said on Twitter/X that he hoped Biden would consider the debate and decide to withdraw from the race, and leave it to the convention to decide who should be the nominee. He suggested someone like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer; Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown; or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (some also think of Vice President Harris or former First Lady Michelle Obama).

Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC that Biden had a mission and failed to accomplish it: He “had to reassure America that he was up to the job at his age, and he failed.”

“Democrats are doing more than privately moaning and wondering why Biden’s surrogates, who did well to counter Biden’s debate performance, are not leading the ticket,” McCaskill said.