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Vice President Kamala Harris became agitated when CNN anchor Anderson Cooper questioned her about calls for President Joe Biden to be “replaced” following his widely negative debate performance.
In what was the first-ever presidential debate for the general election, President Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off in CNN’s debate on Thursday night. The results are in. Although President Biden’s performance improved after a few fatal early blunders, it was insufficient to stop several Democrats from screaming for him to step down.
Following the debate, Harris made the rounds, going so far as to speak with CNN’s Cooper on Debate Night in America. Cooper immediately questioned Harris about the reported panic:
ANDERSON COOPER: CNN’s John King has described a panic inside the Democratic Party right now because of President Biden’s performance in tonight’s debate. He’s been hearing from Democratic lawmakers and others around the country. Some within your own party are wondering if President Biden should even step aside. What do you say to that?
VP KAMALA HARRIS: Listen, first of all, what we saw tonight is that the president making a very clear contrast with Donald Trump on all of the issues that matter to the American people.
Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people, on substance, on policy, on performance. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong and–
ANDERSON COOPER: On substance and policy and performance tonight. I mean, the president’s performance tonight clearly was disappointing for his supporters.
CNN is reporting Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried worried about the president’s performance. One said it was a disaster. Another called it a trainwreck. Those are Democrats especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump’s lies.
VP KAMALA HARRIS: Listen. People can debate on style points, but ultimately this election and who is the president of the United States has to be about substance. And the contrast is clear. Look at what happened during the course of the debate. Donald Trump lied over and over and over again as he has want to do. He would not disavow what happened on January 6th.
He would not give a clear answer on whether he would stand by the election results this November. He went back and forth about where he stands on one of the most critical issues of freedom in America, which is the right of a women to make decisions about their own body.
He has been completely ambiguous and all over the place about where he stands on that issue. Despite the fact that he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade. And that’s exactly what they did.
WATCH:
The media landscape has erupted in response to Biden’s horrific performance during the CNN Presidential Debate.
Responses have ranged from “dismal” critiques to outspoken requests from the left for him to get out of the 2024 contest.
CNN’s John King highlighted the “very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party” that started in the early stages of the debate.
“This was a game-changing debate in the sense that 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 said.
“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 down the party in the ticket, and they‘re having conversations about what they should do about it,” King added.
King’s CNN colleague Kasie Hunt similarly wrote on X, “The voice, open-mouthed look, and visual contrast between President Biden and former President Trump all have Democrats I’m talking to nearly beside themselves watching this debate.”
The voice, open-mouthed look, and visual contrast between President Biden and former President Trump all have Democrats I’m talking to nearly beside themselves watching this debate
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) June 28, 2024
NBC News’ Chuck Todd admitted that Biden looked like the “caricature” conservatives have painted of him, specifically over his mental acuity. The debate came after a flood of liberal anger toward a Wall Street Journal report earlier this month that raised questions about the president’s viability.
“And there were no clips tonight, right? You saw it before your eyes,” Todd said.
Bloomberg Opinion editor Tim O’Brien wrote on X: “Trump’s taken control of the momentum of this debate — despite lying and living in an alternate reality — and Biden simply comes across as a somewhat dazed punching bag.”
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a longtime Biden ally, wrote: “I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime — precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.”
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on X: “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 @gretchenwhitmer or @SherrodBrown or @SecRaimondo could still jump in and beat Trump,” Kristof added, referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, and Biden’s Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin of “The View” said: “If Biden truly believes Democracy is on the line, he should step aside and let another Democrat step in to take on Trump. Put the country first.”
Vox correspondent Eric Levitz wrote: “Joe Biden should save his legacy by ending his candidacy.”
Financial Times associate editor Edward Luce panicked on X, writing: “This is a disaster. Democrats need to end their self-imposed censorship on Biden and fix this. There’s two months until the convention. Other countries hold general elections in less time than that.”
The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur exclaimed on social media: “It’s over. Biden looks and sounds ancient. Losing his train of thought. Speaking in a barely audible whisper. They have to pull him!”
The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich penned an op-ed on Friday titled, “Time to go, Joe,” where he wrote, “Biden needs to step aside—for the sake of his own dignity, for the good of his party, for the future of the country.”
CNN commentator Van Jones called for Biden to step aside, saying: “I love that guy as 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. And I think there’s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now. We’re still far from our convention and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that. But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden. And it’s personally painful for a lot of people. It’s not just panic. It’s pain of what we saw tonight.”
