Democratic voices call for Biden to step down after debate

In the hours leading up to the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, all eyes were on the president's performance.  However, just minutes after the start of the event, Democrats and Republicans both remarked on Biden's poor performance in the first of his meetings with his predecessor, although the Dem's criticism was even stronger.

The current president had one of his "freezing" episodes in the first minutes of the debate, which quickly went viral on social networks.  However, what came next did not win Democrats over who quickly made their opinions known on social media.

"What happened to the State of the Union Biden?"

Rachel Bade, POLITICO's senior Washington DC correspondent, weighed in on her X account after witnessing the first few minutes of the meeting.

"I keep asking: what happened to the SOTU's Biden?  Looks like he's aged about a decade since then," she noted.

One of the most striking criticisms came from the pen of Nicholas Kristof, a legendary columnist for The New York Times, who even went so far as to name names for possible replacements.

"I wish Biden would reflect on this debate performance and then announce his decision to withdraw from the race, throwing the choice of Democratic nominee to the convention.  Someone like Gretchen Whitmer, Sherron Brown or Gina Raimondo could still jump in and beat Trump," he wrote in X.

"There is an aggressive panic in the Democratic Party"

After the debate was over, the CNN panel revealed the chaos that Biden's performance unleashed in the party.

"There is a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party. It started minutes into the debate and continues right now. They're having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal," John King revealed.

"He should withdraw from the election."

Along the same lines was Elise Jordan, an MSNBC political analyst, who also called for the president to withdraw his candidacy.  "If President Biden cares about preserving American democracy, he should withdraw from the election," she said.

For Frank Lutz, a political consultant and who also led a focus group during the real-time debate, wasn't shy about sharing the respondents' thoughts.  "My group is very upset about Biden's voice and appearance.  But they are getting more and more annoyed with Trump's personal attacks," he noted.

After the first commercial break, he asked how many planned to vote for the president.  The answer was so striking that he decided to share it on X.

"After the first commercial break, I asked my group of undecided voters how many of them are most convinced to vote for Joe Biden.  Zero raised their hands.  Half of them say they voted for Biden in 2020," he added.

Sam Stein, who also covered the debate for POLITICO, revealed information he was gathering about Biden's performance among Democrats, which also did not end up very positive.

"To say that Democrats are freaking out about Joe Biden's early results is, well, accurate.  One prominent operative text: 'It's time for an open convention.'  The online reaction has clearly been brutal, with a mixture of despondency.  The debate is young.  But first impressions are bad," the journalist noted.

Finally, Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, was perhaps the most blunt and left the following comment, "The worst day for Biden's campaign by a wide margin."