One House Democrat said he spoke for others in the wake of the president’s stunningly feeble debate performance on Thursday: “The movement to convince Biden to not run is real.”

The House member, an outspoken defender of the president, said that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should consider “a combined effort” to nudge President Joe Biden out of the race.

Crestfallen by the president’s weak voice, pallid appearance and meandering answers, numerous Democratic officials said Biden’s bet on an early debate to rebut unceasing questions about his age had not only backfired but done damage that may prove irreversible. The president had, in the first 30 minutes of the debate, fully affirmed doubts about his fitness.

A second House Democrat said “reflection is needed” from Biden about the way ahead and indicated the private text threads among lawmakers were even more dire, with some saying outright that the president needed to drop out of the race.

  • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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    4 months ago

    Bidens about to go down as one of the worst Democrats in the last century because of his hubris if he doesn’t. His decent domestic agenda will be overshadowed by him ushering in another trump presidency by ignoring all the signs for him to drop out. He didn’t early last year when polls repeatedly showed that people thought he was too old. He didn’t when unnamed democrat was leading him by 10 points. He didn’t when his Gaza policy alienated large chunks of his base. If he doesn’t in the next couple weeks when there will probably be polls coming out showing majority support for him stepping down then he’s gone full head in the sand.

    It’s like RBG all over again, if these people could just get it through there heads to quit while there ahead they could preserve a decent legacy, instead of tarnishing it by leading the way to a regressive order that overturns everything they’ve done.

        • PsychedSy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          I’m going to blame the people that have been trying to gaslight everyone into thinking that Biden was fine.

          • Omega@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            He was fine. He has never sounded like this before. Just look at the State of the Union for what people were expecting.

            This was him being unprepared and trying to remember statistics from 3 and a half years of accomplishments, with a cold, while running a country, while being 81. It reminded me of some bad interviews I’ve been in, honestly.

            • PsychedSy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 months ago

              Bullshit homie, he sounds like this all the time, it’s just progressing faster. They made up a new term to cover it up a few weeks ago and then grampa ran off in his bathrobe and CNN had to call some silver alerts.

              For all the people that talked about how horrible cnn has been to Biden, they were cutting him off to help him. Look back on his ‘gaffes’. They’ve been bad for a long time.

              • Omega@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                I literally don’t know what you’re talking about with bathrobes and silver alerts. What are you smoking?

                  • Omega@lemmy.world
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                    4 months ago

                    I don’t know what YOU are talking about with silver alerts. Or are you just bringing up irrelevant topics. Are you going to talk about burgers next?

        • goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          it wouldn’t be an issue if people didn’t keep saying it

          Which is just like ignoring/not testing for covid and calling it over

          • Omega@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I don’t blame people for wanting to distance from the topic. The problem with Biden isn’t his ability to lead and govern. It’s his image. Talking about it directly hurts his image. BUT it’s still a discussion that needs to be had.

            It would be like Covid if talking about Covid also made it worse.

      • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        if these people could just get it through there their heads to quit while there they’re ahead

        Fuck me that’s just fucking laziness innit?

    • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s like RBG all over again, if these people could just get it through there heads to quit while there ahead they could preserve a decent legacy, instead of tarnishing it by leading the way to a regressive order that overturns everything they’ve done.

      This is one of the core problems of the Democrats: hubris. When Obama had a majority in the House and Senate, he could have easily pushed through a Supreme Court appointee to replace RBG. But she wouldn’t go. Because in her mind, there was no one qualified to fill her shoes. She was convinced that she was the GOAT and that to voluntarily step down when it was safe to do so would be an insult. This is coupled with the fact that Democrats were absolutely, completely certain that they would win every election for the presidency after Obama without trying and that the “coalition of the ascendant” would easily put Hillary into the White House, and then she could be the first female president in US history and have an easy PR win by replacing an aging female supreme court justice.

      I’m willing to bet we have the the same problem here, but in one person: Biden probably thinks the Democrats could never field anyone for president better than him and that his victory is a lock without any real effort to campaign for it again.

      Fun fact: the last time anything like this happened it was with Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was the 22nd president of the United States who lost his re-election bid the first time around, and then got re-elected to be the 24th president of the United States. We are officially in the second Gilded Age.

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      But we’re already past the primary period… Are we suggesting having a quick primary anyway? Who should we put in his place? I haven’t heard a single suggestion for who else to elect. Are we saying Harris should step in? Who should she run with?

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Newsom; Whitmer; Pritzker; Buttigieg; Shapiro; Khanna; Klobuchar; Walz; Booker.

        I even saw someone mention Wes Moore and I was reminded that he’s a pretty good moderate governor of Maryland now instead of “only” a West Point graduate and author.

        • tamal3@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          No mention anywhere of Warren… Did she fail too hard in the primaries?

          Gosh I’d love to see her debate Trump. He would never agree to it though, as she’d rip him to logical pieces.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            No, in an election where age would be a larger issue than it already is I’m assuming anyone who would hit 80 in office is a non starter.

            We need to be training up some younglings.

          • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Warren is a woman and economically progressive and America hates people who are either of those things, let alone both.

        • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Well, half of those were people who ran against Biden, so that makes sense.

          I remember being impressed with Klobuchar, and incredibly impressed with Buttigieg (though sadly he’d lose a lot of the religious vote, sigh). I wish I liked Booker more… But yeah there are some acceptable options there, that’s a relief.

          So yeah, lightning primary?

        • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          Pritzker is the only name on there with the chops for it. Maybe Walz, but he is DFL so I can’t see the DNC even looking at him.