Even some of Biden’s stalwart allies aren’t sure he should stay in the race.
Congressional Democrats aren’t ready to demand that President Joe Biden quit his bid for reelection after a debate performance that was almost universally panned. But for the first time, some of them are taking the possibility seriously.
“The debate was a serious setback,” Senator Peter Welch of Vermont told me by phone yesterday. “It’s up to President Biden and his campaign to demonstrate that they do, in fact, have the energy for another four years.”
Representative Jared Huffman of California, a Democrat serving his sixth House term, told me that Thursday’s matchup between Biden and Donald Trump was “probably the worst debate I’ve ever seen.” When we spoke by phone yesterday, I asked Huffman if Biden should stay in the race. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I think a lot of us are trying to let this sink in and do some processing.”
Both Welch and Huffman were alarmed that the performance of the 81-year-old incumbent—his voice quiet and shaky, his answers often digressive and incomprehensible—only intensified voters’ concerns about his fitness for office. “The question he’s always had to address is the age issue, and that was not mission-accomplished,” Welch said.
Neither Welch nor Huffman are known as Biden critics. And their doubts about his viability as a candidate were echoed by other senior Democrats who are usually stalwart allies of Biden. “The president had a really bad night,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire told a local radio station. “There will be assessments going forward of what happens next.”
Representative Ro Khanna of California, a frequent Biden surrogate, urged the president and his advisers to make “a clear assessment” on the damage he did to his candidacy and how to fix it.
