Some Democrats began calling for President Joe Biden to step aside so the party can nominate another candidate after he stumbled badly in Thursday's debate against his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, News.Az reports citing NBC News.
"This was like a champion boxer who gets in the ring past his prime and needs his corner to throw in the towel," said a Democratic lawmaker, adding that he meant Biden should exit the race.The options for a switch are limited: If the president doesn't choose to leave of his own volition, there would have to be a revolt among Democratic National Convention delegates, the vast majority of whom were elected on their pledge to nominate Biden. But that's what some Democrats were thinking about Thursday night.
It's “time to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee,” said a second Democratic lawmaker who has been a solid Biden supporter.
The fear among these Democrats is that the version of Biden that showed up to the debate — one bearing a likeness to the caricature Trump and his allies have portrayed of a man unequipped for the job — cannot win in November.
Even those who want a replacement candidate doubt that the party can move Biden aside, aren’t certain which candidate could win the party’s nod in his absence and don’t know whether a substitute could beat Trump in November. Going into the debate, which was hosted by CNN, polls showed a close race between Biden and Trump.
“There is a sense of shock at how he came out at the beginning of this debate. How his voice sounded. He seemed a little disoriented. ... There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue,” David Axelrod, a top adviser to former President Barack Obama, said on CNN. “Only he can decide if he’s going to continue.”
Axelrod predicted that Biden wouldn’t be inclined to leave the race, noting that “this is a guy with a lot of pride...who believes in himself.”
The last time a president who was eligible to run for re-election didn’t appear on the November ballot was in 1968, when Lyndon Johnson, facing certain defeat in the Democratic primaries, chose not to seek a second full term.
Still, several Democrats predicted that calls for Biden to take the Johnson route would multiply in the coming days.
