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By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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President Joe Biden's poor performance in a debate on Thursday night against Donald Trump has left Democrats worried as to whether he should still lead the party at the 2024 election.
Biden went into the CNN debate in Georgia facing ongoing concerns that the 81-year-old is too old to run for office again. Biden failed to dispel these concerns on Thursday, delivering a number of stumbling, incoherent and confused responses to questions and prompts.
David Plouffe, a Democratic strategist and former Barack Obama campaign official, told MSNBC that Biden's performance was a "Defcon 1 moment," for the party and that voters' concerns about the president's age were "compounded" on Thursday night.
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Former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill said her "heart is breaking" in response to Biden's performance, adding: "I don't know if things can be done to fix this."
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However, the chance that the Democrats could simply replace Biden as their 2024 candidate at this stage of the campaign, such as via a contested convention, is almost non-existent, unless the president pulls out himself.
Biden is on course to be confirmed as the party's 2024 nominee at the Democratic National Committee in Chicago in August.
A contested convention, where another candidate attempts to convince delegates not to support the front-runner in the first ballot, or the party's primary was a close race, is almost certain not to occur, even with concerns about Biden post-debate.
Firstly, there is no candidate who could even come close to toppling Biden. The incumbent won 3,904 of the available 3,949 delegates at the 2024 Democratic primary, with these delegates pledged to now support him as the party's candidate.
A candidate needs a simple majority of 1,968 to become the nominee.
According to convention rules: "Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them."
Those considered potential Biden replacements, such as Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, are continuing to back Biden's 2024 bid, and a change of heart at this time seems a non-starter.
"We've got to have the back of this president," Newsom told MSNBC. "You don't turn back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?"
The optics of a contested convention ahead of November's election could look bad for the Democratic Party, desperate avoid a Trump return to office.
Casey Dominguez, a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of San Diego, said the reason why Biden faced no real challenges in the primaries is the same reason no one will now step up and challenge his nomination in August.
"Nobody wants to be the person that divided the party and helped to elect Donald Trump," Dominguez told The New York Times.
The Democratic Party has announced that it will hold a virtual roll call to formally nominate Biden before the in-person proceedings take place at the convention in August.
The move was put in place to bypass potential issues about Biden qualifying for the ballots in Ohio.
A contested Democratic convention featuring several candidates could conceivably occur if Biden declines the nomination, something he has long stated he has no intention of doing.
Following Thursday night's debate, Biden told a group of supporters at a debate watch party, "See you at the next one," in reference to the next televised debate in September.
Lauren Hitt, Biden's campaign spokesperson, told The Associated Press after the debate: "Of course he's not dropping out."
Biden's team has been contacted for further comment.
Grant Reeher, a Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said that Biden looked and sounded "frail and confused" at Thursday's debate, which may damage his reelection hopes.
"I don't think he did very much to dispel the concerns about his age that his detractors are emphasizing, and probably added to them," Reeher told Newsweek.
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