President Biden's performance in Thursday night's debate quickly garnered attention from Democrats and liberal media figures, many of whom expressed concern over the president's "weak" performance and discussed talk of him dropping out of the race.
Shortly after the conclusion of the debate in Atlanta, Ga., a firestorm erupted with talk of Democrats replacing Biden as their party's nominee in the 2024 presidential election.
One well-connected Democratic source told Fox News after the debate that the House and the Senate are Republican – for now, adding that "everyone is freaking out" and that Biden "needs to go."
But there is "no way they replace him unless he agrees," the source said.
Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, said during an appearance on MSNBC after the debate that Biden "failed" to show Americans he was "up to the job at his age."
"My job now is to be really honest. Joe Biden had one thing he had to do tonight, and he didn't do it. He had one thing he had to accomplish and that was reassure America that he was up to the job at his age. And he failed at that tonight," she said.
"Now, does that mean my phone blowing up with senators and campaign operatives and donors, big donors from all over the country, does that mean Joe Biden is not gonna be the candidate? I don't know that. I think we'll know a lot more in a few weeks," McCaskill said.
McCaskill said her heart was "breaking" after Biden's performance and that there were "a lot of people who watched [the debate] and felt terrible for Joe Biden."
The talk about Democrats weighing their options on who will serve as the party's presidential nominee was also amplified by John King, CNN's chief national correspondent, who said after the debate, "Right now, as we speak, there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party."
"It started minutes into the debate, and it continues right now," King added. "It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, it involves fundraisers. And they're having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people … and they're having conversations about what they should do about it."
The conversations, King said, were about how to address the issue and whether there should be talk about asking Biden to step aside due to his "terrible" performance.
King said the conversations included whether Democrats should go to the White House and "ask the president to step aside" or whether prominent Democrats should "go public" with a call for the president to drop out of the race because his performance "was so terrible."
MEDIA FIGURES SHOCKED AT BIDEN'S 'BAD' DEBATE PERFORMANCE: 'TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISASTER'
In a social media post, Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times opinion columnist who attempted to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for governor of Oregon in 2022, suggested now is the time for Biden to withdraw from the race.
Several other liberal media figures also weighed in on Biden's performance, including MSNBC host Joy Reid, who said she heard from many Democrats who were "concerned" about Biden's "weak" performance.
Reid told viewers after the debate that her phone "never stopped buzzing throughout" as Democrats approached near "panic."
Describing those who she was texting with as "Obama-world people" and "Democrats," Reid said, "The people who were texting with me were very concerned about President Biden seeming extremely feeble, seeming extremely weak."
Chuck Todd, NBC's chief political analyst, said he had been "talking to a lot of leaders in the Democratic Party, [elected members], coalition leaders, there's a lot of panic about this performance."
"Not like, ‘Oh this is recoverable,’ it's more of a … 'He's gotta step aside' – there's a lot of that chatter," Todd said. "This is about as bad of a performance that Biden could've delivered if his goal was to try to sort of calm the waters among Democrats…"
Despite the reports of replacement chatter among Democrats, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many pundits have touted as a possible replacement for Biden should things go awry for Democrats ahead of the 2024 election, insisted the party's "nominee is Joe Biden."
"I’m looking forward to voting for him in November," Newsom told reporters. "He's going to be our nominee."
