U.S. President Joe Biden and candidate Donald Trump faced off on CNN on June 27. Biden's poor performance in the debate, at the age of 81, has led Democrats to consider finding a new candidate. Post-debate polls suggested that Biden should withdraw from the race. Liberal mainstream media also urged Biden to step down.
Despite these calls, Biden insists he will defeat Trump in the November 5 election. Even though he is met with signs saying “Preserve your legacy, step down” in the cities he visits, he remains firm on his candidacy. Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress are also standing by him. Additionally, at a meeting held immediately after the debate, Democratic governors from 22 states reiterated their support for Biden's candidacy.
Five Democratic Representatives from the House have openly suggested that Biden should step down. Reports indicate that the number of Representatives wanting another candidate to run against Trump is even higher. Many Democratic donors have suspended their support until Biden’s situation becomes clear. Recently, a group of about 200 business leaders close to the Democrats also sent a letter to Biden urging him to withdraw his candidacy.
There were concerns about how Biden's performance would affect voter preferences. According to a New York Times/Siena poll published on Wednesday, Biden is trailing Trump by eight points among registered voters. A Wall Street Journal poll also shows Trump leading Biden by six points nationally. Eighty percent of voters believe Biden is too old to run for a second term. A more striking development was the leaked poll data from the Democratic firm “OpenLabs,” showing Trump ahead in competitive states and Biden’s support declining in key swing states. Forty percent of those who voted for Biden in 2020 now want him to step down.
During a rally in Madison on Friday, Biden made several gaffes. One of them was when he said, referring to Trump, “I will beat him again in 2020.” Realizing his mistake, Biden corrected himself by saying, “And by the way, we will do it again in 2024.” To address doubts about his performance, Biden appeared on ABC News on Friday evening. When the host asked if he had watched the CNN debate, Biden responded, “I think I didn’t, no.” He also left a question about whether he would undergo cognitive and neurological tests and share the results with the public unanswered, failing to quell concerns about his candidacy.
The debates about Biden’s performance and Trump’s lead even before the CNN debate have worried Democrats. Democratic elites, who see Trump’s potential win as an existential threat to the U.S., argue that Biden’s insistence on running contradicts this belief. Another concerning development for Democrats was a Supreme Court ruling on July 1 related to Trump. The court ruled by a majority that actions stemming from the executive should be exempt from criminal investigation. Six conservative justices, three of whom were appointed during Trump’s term, agreed with the majority opinion, while three liberal justices dissented.
Democrats interpret the Supreme Court’s decision as granting Trump “king-like” powers if re-elected. Trump had previously stated that he would radically change the federal bureaucracy and might choose to be a “dictator” for a day to do so. Democrats now fear that the conservative justices have given Trump a four-year reign instead of just one day. Some Democratic writers even suggest that if Biden is elected, he should not shy away from wearing the crown, arrest Trump, reform the Supreme Court, and restore law and order.
