LONDON: Joe Biden is facing calls to stand aside as the Democratic presidential nominee after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
A group of Democrat congressmen are discussing the need for a new nominee after watching the “disaster” unfold, The New York Times reported, while potential replacements including Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, are being implored to step in.
Biden gave a stuttering and incoherent performance at the debate, hosted by CNN in Atlanta, as he struggled to respond to questions about policy and often trailed off mid-sentence.
David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, told the network: “It’s kind of a Defcon 1 moment.”
David Axelrod, another strategist for Obama, said: “I think you’re going to hear discussions that I don’t know will lead to anything but there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
The warning signs for Biden’s were there from the start of the night – from the moment he walked on stage, in fact.
The president looked nervous as he waited in the wings while he was introduced, before stiffly making his way across the stage.
“Folks, how are you?” he said, in a voice that was close to a mumble. As he took his spot, the US president was barely audible as he said, hoarsely: “Great to be here, thank you.”
Axelrod said later in the evening that the Democrat appeared “disoriented” as soon as he stepped on stage.
Trump moved faster and looked younger as he headed towards his own lectern, mouthing a quick “thank you” as he did so. During the 90-minute debate, Biden spoke in a soft, raspy voice which at times made his answers hard to decipher.
As concern grew over the president’s performance, the White House began to brief out that he had a cold. The debate in Atlanta, Georgia, opened with questions on the US economy, but Biden repeatedly paused to correct himself as he confused millions and billions and percentage figures.
“What I’m going to do is fix the tax system. For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in America,” Biden said before clearing his throat. “I mean, a thousand billionaires.” Biden also mixed up a 24 and 25 per cent rate of tax, then lost his train of thought and stared down at his notes. He added that the tax raise would raise $500 million (£395 million) in a 10 year period, before correcting his statement to $500 billion.
Over the night, Trump frequently flipped questions on the economy into responses on the US-Mexico border crisis. “The only jobs he created are for illegal immigrants,” he said of Biden’s immigration policies. “We are living right now in a rat’s nest.”
In the debate’s most excruciating moment for the president, he lost his train of thought while discussing healthcare and tripped over his words before taking a protracted pause. “We finally beat Medicare,” he began again, before a moderator cut him off.
When the debate hosts turned the discussion to immigration, Trump issued one of the most widely shared put downs of the night. In a stumbling answer on his border policies, in which Biden slurred some words, he said there were 40 per cent fewer people coming across the border illegally than when Trump left office.
“I’m going to continue to move it until we get the total ban on ... the total initiative relative to what we’re going to do with more Border Patrol and more asylum officers,” Biden said.Trump responded: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”