Joe Biden is on the brink after being given “one week” to prove himself after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
Democrat party donors and congressmen are calling on the US president to abandon his campaign following the performance which was largely labeled a trainwreck.
Biden was seen forgetting his lines repeatedly and, at one point, froze entirely. The President would pause several times, repeat his sentences and correct himself.
Yesterday, Biden insisted that he could still win the election, saying: “I know I’m not a young man… I don’t debate as well as I used to.
“I give you my word as a Biden that I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job. Quite frankly, the stakes are too high.”
But his fellow party members are asking him to make way for a younger candidate. One congressman told Matthew Yglesias, a US political blogger: “I think the president has one week to prove he is not dead.”
Even Kamala Harris, the vice president, admitted his performance suffered from a “slow start,” but said he “got into a groove where it counted”.
David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, told CNN: “It’s kind of a Defcon 1 moment… they are three years apart, but they seemed about 30 years apart tonight.”
David Axelrod, another Obama adviser, said: “There are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
Mark Buell, a well-known Democratic donor, said: “Do we have time to put somebody else in there?”
One lawmaker told NBC it was “time to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee,” while Jim McGovern, another congressman, declined to publicly support the campaign and said he had not “come to any conclusion yet”.
Even cabinet ministers in the UK are concerned about Biden’s campaign and potential second term.
Three figures sitting around Rishi Sunak’s top table told the Telegraph that Mr Biden should be switched with someone better placed to defeat Donald Trump.
The sources variously called on the Democrats to “get rid” of Mr Biden and “switch him fast”, saying a younger alternative would have a much better chance of victory.
Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, the governors of California and Michigan, are under consideration as possible alternative nominees.
