President Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week set off a furious discussion among Democratic officials, donors and strategists about whether and how to replace him as the party’s nominee. Peter Baker, who is the chief White House correspondent for The Times, takes us inside those discussions and Biden’s effort to shut them down. Guest: Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.
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This is the Daily president Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance last week set off a furious discussion among democratic officials, donors and strategists about whether and how to replace him as their party's nominee.
Today, Chief White House correspondent Peter Baker takes us inside those discussions and Biden's effort to shut that conversation down.
It's Monday, July 1.
Peter, you've been reporting on what I think can be best described as the great democratic freakout that started basically from the moment the debate began at 09:00 p.m.
on Thursday night.
Tell us about the aftermath.
Yeah, I've been covering politics for 38 years, and I've never seen a political panic like we saw after that debate.
It was like a run on the bank.
Everybody in the Democratic Party was suddenly confronted with what they didn't want to admit up until then, which is that they have an 81 year old candidate who will be 86 at the end of a second term.
And it's very possible that he was not capable of completing this campaign in a vigorous and competitive way against Donald Trump.
That's what really it comes down to for many Democrats.
Can Joe Biden take the campaign to Donald Trump and stop what they think is an existential threat to the country?