According to CNN’s chief national correspondent, John King, the Democratic Party is attempting to replace President Joe Biden as its presumed nominee ahead of the August national convention.
On Friday, Biden debated with former US President Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee, during a CNN discussion.
Biden‘s speech was sometimes slurred, throaty, and unintelligible; he stumbled occasionally, and his retorts came out as feeble.
As the candidates debated border closure and immigration, Trump exclaimed,
“I really don’t understand what he said at the end of that sentence.” I do not think he understands what he said either.”
After analysing the performances of both candidates, all of the CNN panelists concluded that Biden had done himself minimal favours on the night.
King said:
“It was a game changing debate in the sense that right now as we speak, there is a deep, a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic party.”
“The panic started minutes into the debate and continues right now. It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fund-raisers.
“And they are having conversations about the president’s performance which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket. They are having conversations about what they should do about it.
“Some of those conversations include should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside? Other conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call? Because they think this debate was so terrible.
“They do say, in moments in the debate later, the president got better and got his footing. But then in the end, even his closing statement was a little halty. The contrast between the two candidates was stark.”
CNN anchor and senior political correspondent Abby Phillip, who anchors CNN NewsNight, called Biden’s performance “problematic” and “damaging”.
Other panelists stated that Biden was “deeply vulnerable,” his voice was “shaky.” They added that Democrats are concerned that if Biden remains at the top of the ticket, they will risk losing the presidency.
Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, debated on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Israel’s assault of Gaza, veterans’ treatment. The also debated on abortion, taxes, Medicare, inflation, Afghanistan, and America’s global standing, with the Republican repeatedly putting the Democrat on the defensive.
Trump served as president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. He lost his reelection bid against Biden and filed an extraordinary appeal to the election results.
On January 6, 2021, Trump’s followers stormed the US Capitol, claiming that the election had been stolen from him.