Failed debate, weakened president… under pressure, Democrats publicly question Joe Biden's state of health

While Joe Biden is under pressure since his disastrous debate against Donald Trump, during which he spoke several times inaudibly, voices are beginning to be heard publicly within the Democrats themselves to ask him to remove. 

Democrats began to publicly question Joe Biden's fitness, while the White House and the president himself tried, without much success, to contain the fire after the failed debate against Donald Trump, explained by fatigue linked to the president's recent international trips.

"I have hope that he will make the difficult and painful decision to step down. I respectfully call on him to do so", wrote Texan Lloyd Doggett in the middle of the day. This Democratic parliamentarian is the first to publicly demand that the president throw in the towel.

Faced with the anxiety flaring in her party, Vice-President Kamala Harris said this Tuesday, July 2 "proud& ;quot; to be the "running mate"Of the president. "Joe Biden is our candidate, we beat Donald Trump once and we will beat him again", she told the CBS News channel. An optimism that is rare in the Democratic camp, very shaken by the disastrous debate last Thursday, during which the 81-year-old Democrat lost his footing against his Republican rival Donald Trump.

"The debate has done too much damage"

"I think it's legitimate to wonder if it's a simple episode or condition sustainable, said Nancy Pelosi, former Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, on MSNBC. "The truth is that Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know it's difficult, but I think the debate has done too much damage", also declared the elected Democrat from the' Washington State Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

This Wednesday, July 3, Joe Biden is scheduled to speak with the country's Democratic governors, according to the official White House agenda. & quot;We will have a healthy discussion with the president", explained one of them, J. B. Pritzker of Illinois, this Tuesday evening on CNN.

"For now, Joe Biden is our candidate, I am 100% behind his candidacy, unless he takes another decision, and in this case we will then all discuss the best course of action to follow," added the governor.

"Bounce"

To explain Joe Biden's disastrous debate with Trump, Biden judged that it was "not very smart" to have "traveled around the world several times" shortly before this confrontation, and that it had led him to “almost fall asleep on stage”, adding: “This is not an excuse but an explanation”.

The American president visited France from June 5 to 9, then Italy from June 12 to 14, followed by a campaign trip to California. He then took six days to prepare for the June 27 debate at the Camp David compound, a period during which he had no public activity.

Until now, the argument of his supporters has been that Joe Biden had had a "bad evening", therefore temporary, and to emphasize that'he was suffering from a "cold& quot; hindering his speech, which his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre repeated again on Tuesday. The president "knows how to bounce back", she assured, ruling out the possibility that the democratic leader, judged capable of governing by his doctor in February, takes a cognitive test.

The American president will give an interview to ABC News on Friday and the White House promises a solo press conference next week, two meetings you're supposed to prove that Joe Biden can speak fluently without a teleprompter.

Survey

According to a poll published Tuesday by CNN, 75% of voters surveyed believe that the Democratic Party would have better chances in November with a candidate other than him. Donald Trump is credited with 49% of voting intentions at the national level, compared to 43% for his rival, an unchanged gap compared to the last poll of this type, conducted in April.

Vice-President Kamala Harris, without winning, would be better placed, at 45% against 47% for the 78-year-old former Republican president. The New York Times reported Tuesday that people close to the president had noted "more frequent" and "more pronounced" in recent months.

Questions about the mental acuity of the oldest president in US history are "legitimate", insisted Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday, failing to respond head-on. The spokesperson assured that the American executive was not hiding "absolutely not" information on the form of the president.

Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, who will replace him ?

In the Washington Post, Michelle Obama is seen as one of the options  Democrats to possibly replace Joe Biden. The wife of Barack Obama and first lady from 2009 to 2017 enjoys a very good popularity rating, even since her departure from the White House. At 60, she is very involved in the campaign, strongly supporting the American president. The former lawyer, however, has not communicated on this subject and therefore suggests that her arrival on the political scene is unlikely.

On the other hand, in the event of Biden abandoning, Hillary Clinton could make a comeback. A candidate for president several times, she was nominated by the Democrats in 2016, but lost to Donald Trump. Replacing Joe Biden would be an opportunity for the woman who began her political career after being First Lady, from 1995 to 2001, during the presidency of her husband, Bill Clinton, to take her revenge, at 76 years old.