Prominent Biden loyalists who have suggested he should step down

A titan of the Obama administration, David Axelrod sounded the alarm during a panel discussion on CNN directly following the debate.

“I think there was a sense of shock, actually, on how he came out at the beginning of this debate,” he said. “How his voice sounded — he seemed a little disoriented at the beginning of the debate. He did get stronger as the debate went on, but by that time, I think the panic had set in.”

He confronted the question on nearly every Democrat’s mind: whether Biden should drop out of the race.

While sparring with Republican strategists on the panel, Axelrod said that the GOP would be in serious “trouble” were the Democratic ticket to change.

The ‘Pod’ guys

Claire McCaskill, a former senator turned political analyst, said on MSNBC that her heart broke while watching the debate.

“Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight, and he didn’t do it,” McCaskill said. “He had one thing he had to accomplish, and that was reassure America that he was up for the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight.”

McCaskill added that elected officials were pinging her phone throughout the debate, throwing around words like “crisis.”

She also said that Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California projected a vitality and assuredness that may leave some questioning why their names aren’t at the top of the ticket.

Thomas Friedman

Van Jones, a political analyst and former Obama advisor, called Biden’s performance “painful” to watch.

“I just want to speak from my heart,” he said on CNN. “I love that guy. That’s a good man — he loves his country, he’s doing the best that he can, but he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base, and he failed to do that.”

Many people, Jones added, will want the president to consider stepping aside given that the Democratic National Convention is not until August.

The question is whether Biden “will allow us to do that,” he said.

Joy Reid

Characteristically geared toward concerns abroad, Ben Rhodes, who was Obama’s deputy national security advisor, kept it plain and simple on Twitter: “Just think about what that debate looked like to people and leaders around the world.”

Nicholas Kristof

Earlier this year, Evan Osnos wrote a considerable profile on Biden; in 2020, he published a sympathetic biography about the president, an excerpt of which he retweeted late Thursday night.

When writing the book, Osnos asked Biden how he would respond to those who believe is too old to be president. Biden answered simply, saying he would ask people, “Look at me. Decide.”

Osnos, grappling with that decision himself, said on CNN after the debate that the man Americans saw onstage was a “diminished” version of the man he wrote about four years ago.

Joe Scarborough

Paul Krugman, an economist and opinion columnist for The New York Times, wrote in a column that Biden, based on his policy record, should be an “overwhelming” favorite for reelection, but wasn’t.

While describing him as the “best” president of his adult life, he said Biden failed to rise to the occasion when it “really” mattered during the presidential debate and said he must “very reluctantly” join those calling on him to step aside.

“In any case, although I hate to see Biden in this position, he’s a good man, and I hope he’ll do the right thing,” Krugman wrote.

Chandler West

Chandler West, former White House deputy director of photography from January 2021 through May 2022, wrote in a now-deleted Instagram story: “It’s time for Joe to go,” according to screenshots obtained by Axios.

He said he knows how the White House operates, and said they will blame a “cold” or a “bad night.” But White House operatives have said privately for weeks and months that Biden is “not as strong as he was just a couple of years ago,” West wrote.

In a text message sent to Axios, West predicted that the debate is “not gonna be the last” bad day for Biden.

Correction: June 28, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the role of Ben Rhodes in the Obama administration. He was the deputy national security advisor, not the national security advisor.