Media pundits and commentators declared President Joe Biden’s campaign dead on Thursday night after his disastrous showing against former President Donald Trump in the election’s first presidential debate.
The panic from left-wing CNN pundits matched the network’s own polling, which found that 67% of respondents said Trump won the debate, compared to only 33% for Biden.
“He’s doing the best that he can,” said CNN Democrat analyst Van Jones. “But he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence in the country and of the base, and he failed to do that.”
Jones went even further, saying that Biden needed to end his campaign. “We’re still far from our convention,” he said. “And there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that.”
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod said on CNN that there was a “sense of shock” over how poorly Biden performed.
“He seemed a little disoriented,” he said. “But by that time, I think the panic had set in. And I think you’re going to hear discussions that − I don’t know will lead to anything − but there is going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
CNN’s Erin Burnett said that Biden knew “every one of these questions” asked during the debate, suggesting that he was tipped off about what would be asked and still “couldn’t fill the time.”
CNN’s Chris Wallace said that Biden’s performance was akin to a car wreck in slow motion and that he “sunk his campaign tonight.”
ABC News’ Tammy Bruce said on air following the debate that this was “not the night that the Biden campaign wanted or needed.”
NBC News’ Kristen Welker said Democratic lawmakers told her the race was “effectively over” while others went even further and started to “question what happens moving forward.”
ESPN talk show host Stephen A Smith pleaded with Democrats to find someone to replace Biden.
“So do y’all finally want to stop arguing with me about Biden now???” he posted on X. “Have your fears now been confirmed? @MichelleObama. @VP. Somebody. Please help! Biden’s team WANTED this? His staff, His loved ones…. How could you put him out there like that! How could you!”
Far-left podcast host Cenk Uygur said that the race was over and that it was a bad idea for Biden to take on Trump.
Biden “can’t even talk” or stand there “and look normal”, he exclaimed. “This things a bloodbath. He’s going to get annihilated.”
CBS News reported that there are top House Democrats who are having discussions about forcing Biden to step down after his performance.
MSNBC’s Claire McCaskill, a former Democrat senator, said: “Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight and he didn’t do it.”
“He 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,” she said. “I don’t know if things can be done to fix this. They might, and Trump is so terrible that this might heal itself, but based on what I’m hearing from a lot of people, and some of them are people that are in high elective offices in this country and you might guess where they serve, there is a lot more than handwringing tonight. I do think people feel like that we are confronting a crisis.”
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