Crosswalk Headlines Formerly ChristianHeadlines
Topics:

Democrats Urge Biden to Withdraw after Disastrous Debate Performance

  • Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
  • Updated Jun 28, 2024
Democrats Urge Biden to Withdraw after Disastrous Debate Performance

Democrats and members of the Left called on President Biden to drop out of the race Thursday night following a debate performance in which he froze, stumbled, and struggled for words against his more energetic opponent, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. A CNN snap poll showed that Trump won the debate with 67-33 percent.

“This was like a champion boxer who gets in the ring past his prime and needs his corner to throw in the towel,” a Democratic lawmaker told NBC News off the record, adding Biden should exit the race. 

It’s “time to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee,” a second Democratic lawmaker told NBC News. 

Related Article: Key Highlights from the 2024 CNN Presidential Debate

Biden already has sealed the Democratic nomination. The easiest and perhaps only way to replace him would be for him to voluntarily withdraw in the face of polling data implying he cannot win.

Biden, 81, already trailed in multiple battleground state polls heading into Thursday’s debate and needed a solid performance to reassure voters he still has the stamina for the job. Instead, voters saw the opposite.  

Former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, all but said Biden should withdraw.

“[It’s] more than hand wringing tonight. I do think people feel like we are confronting a crisis,” McCaskill said on MSNBC. 

Biden “had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill applauded Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for defending Biden in post-debate interviews but added, “Those two people are signaling to a whole lot of Americans that are paying attention, ‘How come they’re not running? How come the Democratic Party doesn’t have them at the top of the ticket instead of using them to shore up what has become after tonight some pretty glaring weaknesses in our president.’”

McCaskill said her phone was “blowing up” during the debate with messages from “senators and campaign operatives and donors” concerned about Biden’s performance. 

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, a progressive writer, urged Biden to drop out.

“I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention,” Kristoff wrote, saying he believes Sen. Sherrod Brown, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer could beat Trump. 

Van Jones, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, said Biden “didn’t do well at all” during the debate.

“I love that guy. That’s a good man. He loves his country,” Jones said. “He’s doing the best that he can but he had a test tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base. And he failed to do that. And I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now.”

David Plouffe, campaign manager for Obama in 2008, called it a “DEFCON 1” moment for Democrats. 

“Their concern level is quite high,” Plouffe said. 

Biden and Trump are only three years apart in age but “seemed 30 years apart,” Plouffe added. 

On Friday, other New York Times columnists urged Biden to bow out of the race.

“I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep,” columnist Tom Friedman, a friend of Biden, wrote. “I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime -- precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.”

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Andrew Harnik/Staff

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.