In one of the somewhat more entertaining aspects of the post-debate political situation, President Joe Biden has decided to dig in his heels and refuse to drop out of the race despite his seemingly obvious cognitive issues and disastrously bad debate performance, causing many on the left to freak out and demand he step down.
Such is what Democrats, from lawmakers to political commenters, said after both the debate and his not-great interview with George Stephanopolous, an interview meant to rehabilitate his image that seems to have largely failed at doing that as concern and worry amongst the party rises. Adding more fire to their worry is Biden’s poor polling against Trump.
Among those who spoke out was longtime Democrat political operative David Axelrod, who said, speaking to Politico, “He was more animated and made a strong case for what he has done. But the question the debate raised is about his fitness for the next four years, not his performance in the past four years.” Axelrod continued, “And he simply doesn’t acknowledge that concern. He also is in denial about where he is in this race.”
Another Democrat who spoke to Politico, an anonymous House Democrat, accused Biden of denying the problem of his electability, noting that it’s not inspiring the voter base. That representative said, “Denial of the problem is not a solution or a path forward to convincing our constituents that he has the capacity or the vision for four more years.”
Similarly, another anonymous Democrat, this one a political operative, said that President Biden’s “acceptance of losing to Trump as long as he tried his best will make his hand significantly worse with every Democratic office holder who does not want to lose their seat.” That operative did, however, say that Biden’s passable performance in the recent interview was a “stay of execution.”
Also chiming in was another anonymous Democrt, this one a former official from the Biden Administration. That former official said, “Democrats have spent the last few days trying to give him space and grace Because he’s digging in, we’re seeing an effort to take it up a notch or two. And that should be more worrying to the Biden operation than anything.”
Speaking to ABC News about the interview, on the other hand, another Democrat noted that it was far from enough to allay concerns about his cognitive health, saying, “One interview is not going to change the perception — we need more than 22 minutes — people have got to know he has the stamina to do the job and right now there are still concerns,”
Also speaking to ABC, Rep. Mike Quigley said, “Look, I think there’s growing concern.” Rep. Quigley added that things will get intense as Biden digs in and demands for him to drop out continue, saying, “I think this is going to be an intense week in D.C., never mind all the critical issues that are taking place on the floor and in the country and the world … The political realm is going to go into hyperdrive this week.”
Watch the compilation of Biden’s debate lowlights here:
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