0:01

This is a pivotal moment between

0:03

President Joe Biden and former President

0:05

Donald Trump in their rematch for

0:07

the nation's highest office. Going

0:09

into Thursday night's CNN presidential

0:11

debate, President Joe Biden had

0:13

one critical job. Reassure

0:16

his voter base, prove his strength

0:18

and vitality, and demonstrate he's capable

0:20

of leading the country for four

0:22

more years. But in just the

0:24

first 30 seconds of the debate... Make

0:27

sure that we're able to make every

0:29

single solitary person eligible

0:32

for what I've been able to do with the

0:34

COVID... Excuse

0:36

me, with... He faltered. Dealing

0:38

with everything we have to do with... Look,

0:44

if we finally

0:46

beat Medicare. Throughout the debate,

0:48

Biden's voice was weak and raspy. According to

0:50

his team, it was due to a cold.

0:53

He was hard to follow at times. Here

0:55

he is stumbling through an answer about abortion,

0:57

which is a key issue for Democrats and

1:00

a key plank of his reelection campaign. I

1:03

supported Roe v. Wade, which had

1:05

three trimesters. The first time

1:07

is between the woman and the doctor.

1:09

The second time is between the doctor

1:11

and an extreme situation. The third time

1:13

is between the doctor... I

1:15

mean, between the woman and the...

1:18

Biden's debate performance played into his

1:20

biggest vulnerability and many Democrats' biggest

1:22

fear. That at 81 years

1:24

old, he might just be too old for the

1:26

job. Meanwhile, his opponent, former

1:28

President Trump, continued to fuel conspiratorial grievances

1:31

and spread falsehoods throughout the debate. Like

1:33

about abortion... He's willing to, as we

1:35

say, rip the baby out of the

1:37

womb in the ninth month and kill

1:40

the baby. That is simply

1:42

not true. ...and immigration. He's the one to kill

1:44

people with the bad water, including hundreds

1:47

of thousands of people dying and

1:49

also killing our citizens when they

1:51

come in. Biden's performance has

1:53

a lot of Democratic leaders worried. Some

1:56

are even expressing their worries out loud. My

1:58

job now? is to be really

2:01

honest. Joe Biden had one

2:03

thing he had to do tonight, and

2:05

he didn't do it. He had

2:07

one thing he had to accomplish, and

2:10

that was reassure America that

2:12

he was up to the job at his age.

2:15

And he failed at that tonight. That's

2:17

former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill on MSNBC.

2:20

She's a Biden surrogate and some prominent

2:22

commentators who had backed his candidacy are

2:25

calling for Biden to drop out of the race

2:27

so that another Democrat can run. Consider

2:30

this, the primary season is over.

2:33

The election is just four months

2:35

away. And yet Democrats are

2:37

still grappling with the question of whether President

2:39

Biden should even stay in the race. Coming

2:42

up, we'll speak with NPR's Senior White House Correspondent

2:44

Tamara Keith and Congressional Correspondent

2:46

Deirdre Walsh about what happens next and

2:48

whether Biden can quell those fears. From

2:57

NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. This

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4:05

It's Consider This from NPR. President

4:08

Biden's debate performance last night was halting.

4:10

His voice was raspy. At times, he

4:12

appeared to lose his train of thought.

4:15

Even Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans described

4:17

the high-stakes night as devastating. Today,

4:20

at a much more high-energy rally

4:22

in North Carolina, Biden acknowledged he

4:24

had faltered. I

4:27

don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak

4:29

as smoothly as I used to. I

4:31

don't debate as well as I used to. But

4:34

I know what I do know. I

4:37

know how to tell the truth. I know. I

4:40

know rights are wrong. I

4:46

know how to do this job. This

4:54

was the earliest televised general election debate

4:56

in history. The next one is not

4:59

scheduled until September, if it even happens.

5:01

So where does the campaign go from

5:03

here? NPR's senior White House correspondent

5:05

Tamara Keith joins me now. Hey, Tam. Hey,

5:08

Scott. So amid all the Democratic freakouts I have

5:10

seen in my career, this is certainly the biggest

5:13

one. What in this environment did Biden have

5:15

to say at this rally today? The

5:17

rally speech was in front of a

5:19

very hyped crowd, unlike last night's debate

5:22

with no audience. And

5:24

it was everything that Biden's debate performance was

5:26

not. You know, it's like when

5:28

someone insults you and then hours later you think

5:30

of all the comebacks you should have said earlier.

5:32

Yes. That is basically what

5:35

Biden was doing today in this more scripted

5:37

format. He hit Trump on policy and personality.

5:39

He called him a convicted felon. Biden

5:41

talked about what he plans to do to make

5:44

voters lives better if he gets a second term.

5:46

He talked about abortion rights and democracy much

5:48

more clearly than he did last night. And

5:51

he slammed Trump for trying to rewrite history

5:54

of what happened on January 6th for failing

5:56

to answer when pressed repeatedly on whether he

5:58

would accept the results of Deirdre

8:00

Walsh, who covers Congress, and she's been looking

8:02

at how Biden's performance of the debate could

8:04

affect control of the House and Senate, which

8:06

of course are also up for grabs in

8:08

November. There is concern among some of the

8:10

Democrats running alongside him that their efforts to

8:13

keep the Senate and flip control of the

8:15

House could be in peril. Deirdre

8:17

joins us from the Capitol where she talked to

8:19

a lot of Democrats today. Hey, Deirdre. Hey,

8:22

Scott. What are you hearing?

8:24

The mood was pretty low among House Democrats

8:26

today. I mean, the ones that I did

8:28

talk to or did agree to talk to

8:30

reporters did not sugarcoat that things went off

8:32

the rails early on for President Biden during

8:35

the debate, that he struggled to respond forcefully

8:37

to former President Trump. Many

8:39

House Democrats acknowledged that Biden didn't make

8:42

the contrast with Trump that they were

8:44

hoping, and he didn't deliver a coherent

8:46

message about his agenda. New

8:48

York Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks said coming

8:51

off the House floor there was anxiety

8:53

among House Democrats and people were disappointed.

8:56

I know Joe Biden. I've sat across the room

8:58

from Joe Biden in some very important meetings. And

9:01

I know that he's all there and he

9:03

has the ability to do that. He did

9:05

not do that last night. What about specifically

9:08

Democrats in competitive races? Are they worried that

9:10

this could hurt their chances? I mean, some

9:12

admitted it wasn't a good night, but they

9:14

were also frustrated that there wasn't more media

9:16

focus on Trump's performance and that he was

9:18

the one that needed to be fact checked

9:21

more. Democratic Congresswoman Susan

9:23

Wild is running for reelection in a

9:25

swing district in Pennsylvania. She was not

9:27

eager to discuss Biden, but when reporters

9:29

tried, she instead tried to focus on

9:32

Trump and what she called his string

9:34

of lies. One thing Democratic

9:36

strategists have been pointing out to me today is

9:39

that Democratic candidates and incumbents

9:41

in key swing state Senate

9:43

races in places like Pennsylvania,

9:45

Arizona, Wisconsin have been outperforming

9:47

Biden in the polls in

9:49

those states. While Democrats are

9:51

seeing similar trends in some of these swing

9:53

house districts, it's really unclear if that's going

9:56

to continue. But some of these Democrats are

9:58

saying that this is a. that

10:00

voters may not be linking all Democrats to the

10:02

top of the ticket. The one of the stories

10:04

of this race is that there's such low interest

10:06

from voters across the country. Last night was a

10:08

rare moment where a lot of people were tuning

10:10

in. Do the people you talk to think that

10:12

Biden can come back from this? They

10:15

do. They really want him to pivot,

10:17

do more public events, do town halls,

10:19

engage more directly with voters around the

10:21

country. Missouri Democratic Congressman, Emmanuel Cleaver, told

10:23

me Biden wasn't as aggressive as he

10:26

hoped, but he said he could come

10:28

back from it. The die is not

10:30

cast based on that debate.

10:34

And, you know, recovery is always

10:36

possible. Congress is now on recess

10:38

for the Fourth of July. Democrats are going to

10:40

go home and talk to voters. But,

10:42

you know, as Tam has been saying and other people

10:44

have been saying, Democrats already knew

10:46

this was going to be a close

10:49

election. Last night's debate just for

10:51

them reinforced that they have to keep

10:53

working hard to make their case about

10:56

their agenda, the president's agenda, and Republicans

10:58

and Trump's. Key question amid all of

11:00

this, how serious is the conversation about

11:02

replacing Biden? It's not serious with top

11:05

Democrats. They are sticking with Biden. I

11:07

talked to House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries,

11:09

about this idea. Some Democrats are floating

11:12

about another nominee. He says that is

11:14

not his position. He said

11:16

he believes Democrats can still win back the House

11:18

with Biden on the ticket. A

11:21

lot of Democrats are saying, you know,

11:23

people need to not overreact, that there's

11:25

time for Biden to make his case

11:27

in these campaign events. But Scott, there

11:29

are still some Democrats, some of those

11:31

in swing districts who are not ruling

11:34

out looking at what the process is.

11:36

They said it's complicated. The reality is

11:38

doing anything at this stage

11:40

in the campaign is not realistic. The

11:42

party would have to coalesce around an

11:44

alternative. And they admit there's really no

11:46

consensus about that. The convention starts on

11:48

August 19th. Right. The primary season

11:50

is over and the convention is just weeks away.

11:52

I'm Paris Deidre Walsh. Thank you so much. Thanks,

11:54

Scott. This

11:57

episode was produced by Brianna Scott and was

11:59

edited by Jim Annette Woods and Adam Rainey,

12:01

our executive producer, is Sami Yennigit. And

12:07

thanks to our ConsiderThis Plus listeners who support

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public radio strong. Supporters also

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