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By Alia Shoaib
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President Joe Biden's shaky performance in the first presidential debate against Donald Trump has sent Democrats into a "panic" and sparked calls for him to be replaced on the ticket before November.
To replace Biden just months before the election would be unprecedented in modern times, and until recently, would have been seen as unthinkable.
But now, some rattled Democrats and commentators are suggesting the party reconsider their options. Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
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Andrew Yang, who ran against Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2020, said that Biden should step aside and allow another candidate to be chosen.
"What's Joe Biden's superpower? That he's a good guy who will do the right thing for the country. In this case, that's stepping aside and letting the DNC choose another nominee," Yang wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Yang added that he had debated Biden seven times in 2020, and said that "he's a different guy in 2024."
Democratic consultant and former Obama aide Johanna Maska, who once worked with Biden, also amplified calls to replace him.
"We cannot do this Democrats. Joe Biden can't put a sentence together. We have to change our candidate—and we have so many good candidates who are sitting on the sidelines," Maska said in a video posted to X.
David Axelrod, a former strategist for former President Barack Obama, told CNN about Biden: "There is a sense of shock at how he came out at the beginning of this debate. How his voice sounded. He seemed a little disoriented... There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue."
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CNN commentator Van Jones, who is affiliated with the Democratic Party, also gave a morose assessment of Biden's performance: "He didn't do well at all. He did not do well at all."
"We're still far from our convention, and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that. But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden. And it's personally painful for a lot of people. It's not just panic, it's pain—of what we saw tonight," Jones said.
Colby Hall, the founding editor of the political media website Mediaite.com, wrote in an opinion piece that Biden's debate performance "proved he is not fit to be president" and called on him to "be a real hero" and drop out.
Several unnamed Democratic strategists and donors expressed similar concerns to Politico and NBC News following the debate.
Biden has long faced questions about his age and mental acuity, which have come into sharper focus after a faltering debate performance in which the 81-year-old president appeared to stumble over his answers and occasionally seemed to lose his train of thought.
The scenario of Biden being replaced is both unlikely and challenging. He has secured nearly all pledged delegates through his primary victories and is poised to secure the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention unless he chooses to withdraw.
With the formal nominating process set to occur weeks before the August 19-22 convention, any new candidates would need to emerge before then.
Despite the panicked rumblings, many other Democrats have stood by Biden and cautioned their party to not abandon him based on one bad performance.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said the talk of replacing him was "unhelpful" and "unnecessary," adding: "You don't turn your back because of one performance."
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