Joe Biden met with 20 Democratic governors to discuss his presidential candidacy after his debate performance raised doubts within the party about whether he could eventually beat Donald Trump. According to transcripts, the hour-long conversation was "sincere," and some were even concerned about Trump's chances of returning to the White House.

The failure of the first debate triggered an earthquake in the Democratic Party, with key talking heads in the media, elected representatives and candidates calling for Biden to decline his candidacy, both publicly and privately.

Although some of the most visible faces of the president's re-election campaign tried to make up the situation, such as former Senator Chris Dodd, an internal process has reportedly begun to review the real impact of the debate and its possible consequences in November for the Democrats' ticket, who could lose up to eight Senate seats.

"Senior advisers say they believe the 81-year-old Biden may have mere days to mount a convincing display of his fitness for office before his party’s panic over his debate performance and anger about his response boils over, according to two people with knowledge who insisted on anonymity to more freely discuss. The president accepts the urgency of the task — having reviewed the polling and mountains of media coverage — but he is convinced he can do that in the coming days and insistent that he will not step out of the race, they said," AP reported.

Biden's meeting with Democratic governors

With the premise of convincing the governors that his candidacy is still viable, and even more so when it is speculated that many of them are eager to start a race for the White House, Biden held an hour-long meeting with 20 of them, including Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul.

According to what was reported about this meeting, the conversation was "sincere," so much so that some governors were concerned about a possible Trump victory with Biden as the head of the list.

Both the governor of New York and her counterparts in Maryland (Wes Moore) and Minnesota (Tim Waltz), participated in person.

"The president is our candidate. The president is the leader of our party," Moore expressed in this regard. He added that the president "was very clear that he is here to win." For her part, Hochul affirmed that the governors promised to support the president.

According to Biden's campaign, the meeting was intended to discuss the governors' association with the campaign and the president took the opportunity to seek "advice and expertise" from those present.

Newsom publicly endorsed Biden

One of the most striking statements came from the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who for months has been rumored as a potential replacement for Biden as candidate. However, he took it upon himself to clear the doubts on his X account.

"I heard three words from the President tonight...he’s all in. And so am I. Joe Biden has had our backs. Now it's time to have his," the Democrat tweeted.