By Thursday’s first presidential debate on CNN, his campaign advisers believed, offered the country a chance to see the real Joe Biden. They expected the president would reassure voters that he was up to the task of the presidency and thought it gave the re-election campaign a chance to reset the race.
For the entirety of last week, the president disappeared from the public as he prepared at Camp David to go toe to toe with Donald Trump.
Now, after what’s been labeled as a disaster for the Democratic Party, many have been left wondering: what the heck was he doing?
Axios reports that calls for Biden campaign officials to be fired only moments after Biden began speaking from the podium Thursday night.
The finger-pointing began quickly among some White House officials over how Biden’s inner circle had conducted the president’s debate prep.
“He was over-prepared and relying on minutiae when all that mattered was vigor and energy,” one person in Biden’s orbit told Axios. “They prepared him for the wrong debate. He was over-prepared when what he needed was rest. It’s confounding.”
A former White House official argued that people needed to be fired, but lamented that probably wouldn’t happen because Biden rarely dismisses people.
“It was a really disappointing debate performance from Joe Biden,” Biden’s former White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said on CNN.
The showing last night has caused utter panic from liberals. David Plouffe, one of Barack Obama’s main advisers, called the debate a “DEFCON 1 moment” for the party.
Voters were not impressed with Biden, to say the least. “A CNN poll of people who watched the debate late Thursday found 67 percent said former President Trump won the debate, leaving 33 percent who said President Biden won.
The poll contained more bad news for Biden: It found 57 percent of debate watchers said they do not have confidence in Biden’s ability to lead the country, while 44 percent said they had no confidence in Trump’s ability to lead the country.
The poll had a margin of error of 5.5 percentage points.
CNN’s political director, David Chalian, noted the poll may not be representative of the electorate of registered voters but has a similar partisan composition.”
The poll is the first time that the public has said that Trump won a presidential debate.
CNN’s elections guru Harry Enten showed that’s not very good news for Joe Biden:
Every past incumbent trailing going into the first debate & lost that debate lost the general election. Very bad for Biden.
Also, the last 4 first debate winners gained an average of 4 points in the polls afterward. If that holds, Trump may open up a 5-6 pt lead nationally. pic.twitter.com/8KhJEsd8Dc
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) June 28, 2024
In trying to defend Biden following the debate, one of his chief allies in Congress, Ro Khanna from California, accidentally let the cat out of the bag, explaining that Joe Biden really isn’t in charge.
“We have a great team of people that will help govern,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California and an official Biden surrogate responsible for reaching out to young voters. “That is what I’m going to continue to make the case for.”
When asked if he could vouch for the president, Mr. Khanna told The New York Times. “I can vouch for our policies.”
[Read More: Michelle Obama Furious At Biden Family Treatment Of Friend]
