Biden's candidacy remains under threat as top Democratic donors get cold feet

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the performance by Joe Biden at last week’s debate might have countries like Iran foaming at the mouth to develop a nuclear weapon. 

Graham added that if Biden were to actually be replaced with another name on the ballot, it won’t change the Democratic agenda.

“I think they will replace him,” Graham said Tuesday on “Hannity.” “I think it’ll be abundantly obvious you cannot convince the American people this guy can serve another four years, that he’s not mentally with it, the world’s too dangerous to have him in the commander-in-chief's chair, so I think there’s going to be a real move here soon to replace him.

“But here’s what I want you to know. You might change the name of the person, but they all have the same policies.”

Graham started his brief segment by saying it’s hard to comprehend how President Biden can “absorb what’s going on in the world” by what he saw with the debate against former President Donald Trump. It was a debate where Biden looked tense, stumbled over his words and looked shaky at times trying to answer questions in which he prepared for more than a week at Camp David.

“Our enemies are watching that debate. I’m very worried about what they took away from this debate. If you’re Iran, you really push before November to get a nuclear weapon before Biden’s compromised,” Graham said. “The bottom line here is this is a very dangerous time.

“When President Trump told our enemies I’m watching what you’re doing here, don’t take advantage of this situation. I hope our enemies are listening.” 

Graham added that he believes any Democrats running on Biden’s record will fall in their respective elections this fall.

“But 76% of American public believe Joe Biden is not capable mentally having the job,” Graham said. “If you’re a Democratic senator in these contests, Joe Biden is going to sink you.”

President Joe Biden tweeted Tuesday that he signed the National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act – a law that could possibly help prevent, treat and cure Parkinson’s disease and similar disorders.

Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder in humans that affects body movements, facial expressions and even speech, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Biden has been under the microscope from media, lawmakers and voters ever since his shaky performance at last Thursday’s presidential debate against former President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if Biden was suffering from Alzheimer's or any form of dementia — also neurological disorders that are somewhat related to Parkinson’s disease — after his awkward debate performance.

"Does President Biden, at 81 years old, have Alzheimer's, any form of dementia or degenerative illness that cause these sorts of lapses? And it's a yes or no question," a reporter asked Jean-Pierre on Tuesday afternoon.

Jean-Pierre not only answered the question, but sharply turned the answer from left to right, telling the reporter to ask the same about Biden's presidential opponent in former President Donald Trump.

"Are you ready for it? It's a no. And I hope you're asking the other guy the same exact question," Jean-Pierre quipped, referring to Trump.

Biden posted a photo on X with a group of people standing around him. 

“Today I signed the National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act – a law that will help prevent, treat, and cure Parkinson’s disease and similar disorders,” the president’s X account read.

“This law is about dignity. It gives people hope that we can end this cruel disease and that we can still do big things.”

A flurry of Democratic lawmakers have begun calling for Biden to withdraw from the upcoming presidential election while scads of Republicans have questioned Biden’s impairment.

US President Joe Biden (L) laughs with former US President Barack Obama onstage during a campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15, 2024. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s campaign said that former President Barack Obama offered “unwavering support” for Biden despite last Thursday’s first presidential debate that was less than flattering for the current president.

“President Biden is grateful for President Obama’s unwavering support since the very start of this campaign as both a powerful messenger to voters and a trusted adviser directly to the president,” Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the Biden campaign, said, according to the Washington Post.

The report states that Obama spoke with Biden by phone after the debate to offer words of encouragement after the debate, which has alarmed many Democrats to call for Biden’s withdrawal from the upcoming election.

Obama hasn’t called for any Biden withdrawal, but has suggested his former vice president keep pushing forward.

“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Obama stated on social media after the debate.  

“Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”

Obama, who remains one of the biggest names in the Democratic Party, has attended two major fundraisers for Biden in the past few months, including a ritzy fundraiser in April with former President Bill Clinton in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said that “everybody is asking one question of the Democratic party,” from Raskin’s “friend” [Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett] and all members of the House and Senate.

“How do we defeat Donald Trump and how are we going to defeat the threat of authoritarianism and keep the progress of democracy and freedom moving forward in the country?” Raskin said Tuesday on ‘All In with Chris Hayes.’

Raskin went on to claim that Democrats are “not operating like an authoritarian and religious cult the way the Republican Party operates now.”

The Maryland lawmaker said there will be “lots of people weighing in and this is a moving target.”

“It's got to happen quickly,” Raskin told Hayes. “But I can guarantee you — there will be massive unity and focus on that task when we get to the end of this process. And it's happening very quickly."

Doggett, who has been a member of Congress since 1995, was the first House Democrat to call upon Biden to withdraw from the upcoming election.

More than two dozen Democratic House lawmakers are preparing to call for Biden to step aide if he seems shaky in the coming days, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a House Democratic aide.

Another House Democratic aide said that moderate House Democrats in competitive district – often called “frontliners” – were getting hammered with questions in their districts this week following President Biden’s disastrous debate performance in Atlanta last week.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken after the debate showed one in three Democrats think Biden should end his re-election bid. 

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said, D-Wash., told KATU Tuesday she believed President Biden’s disastrous debate performance effectively handed the election to Donald Trump.

“About 50 million Americans tuned in and watched that debate. I was one of them for about five very painful minutes. We all saw what we saw, you can’t undo that, and the truth I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump,” Perez said. “I know that’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate.”

 Still, Perez stopped short of calling for President Biden to drop out of the race entirely.

“A core tenet of democracy is that you accept the results of an election and the reality is that primary voting has already happened to a degree that Biden is the nominee," Gluesenkamp Perez said.

President Biden, speaking at a campaign fundraiser, blamed his disastrous debate performance last week on international travel – despite nearly two weeks having transpired between when he returned to the U.S. and when he participated in the debate.

“I wasn’t very smart,” Biden told donors in McLean, Virginia Tuesday evening.

Biden said he ignored his staff who said doing the debate was a bad idea. He also claimed that he nearly fell asleep on stage. Later Biden joked about Republicans who supposedly said the president would be coked up for the debate – an idea he dismissed as ridiculous, being the only Irishman to have never had a drink.

Jokes aside, Biden’s itinerary shows his international travel was confined to the first half of June and 12 days had passed between his return to the U.S. and debate night.

President Biden left for France the evening of June 4 to participate in a ceremony honoring the 80th anniversary of D-Day. He departed France the afternoon of June 9.

The president departed for Europe once again several days later for the G7 Summit in Italy where he stayed until June 14. He arrived in the U.S. June 15 to participated in a campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles. For several days leading up to the debate, Biden stayed at Camp David.

The White House on Tuesday blamed Biden’s debate poor performance on having a cold, though Biden made no mention of this during the campaign fundraiser in McLean.

As fallout from the debate performance lingered into the following week, The New York Times published a report citing “current and former officials” who have worked with the president behind closed doors, who noticed that he “increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations.”

These concerns, the report said, have grown even more pronounced after the debate, which has fueled calls for Biden to step out of the presidential race.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on Biden’s latest remarks.

Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro said on MSNBC Tuesday that Democrats are “on their heels having to defend [President] Joe Biden and the baggage that he brings with him.”

“If you switched candidates, that’s a different story,” Castro said, arguing that Democrats would be free to focus on former President Trump’s "baggage instead of anything on the Democratic side.”

“So, yes I believe that there are stronger options out there for Democrats. We have a stable of folks that could do a better job, including Vice President Harris,” Castro said.

Ask to clarify that he believes Biden should drop out of the 2024 presidential race, Castro said, “I believe another Democrat would have a better shot at beating Trump.”

In an op-ed column published Tuesday, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, said President Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week was “not a surprise” and “didn’t rattle” him as much as it had others.

The outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Golden wrote, “has been clear to me for months.”

“While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that,” Golden wrote in The Bangor Daily News.

Golden said he rejected the premise that Democracy itself was at stake should Trump win the election.

“Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system,” Golden said, noting that the U.S. has survived far worse.

Golden’s op-ed comes after Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first elected Democrat to call on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, saying the president “failed” to defend his record and reassure voters that he’s the man for the job during last week’s debate.

President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the D.C. Emergency Operations Center, Tuesday, July 2, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Biden is planning to travel to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania this week as fallout from his disastrous debate performance last night continues.

According to an advisory, the president will travel to Madison, Wisconsin this Friday, the day after the 4th of July.

Then on Sunday, the president and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for an engagement. 

A Democratic congressional candidate is urging President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race following his disastrous Thursday-night debate performance. 

Adam Frisch, who is running against Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., sent an email to his supporters Tuesday, saying neither Biden nor Trump should be running for president.

“Only in politics is stating the obvious rarely done,” the message read. “It has been clear to me for some time – and the debate only reinforced it – neither candidate should be running for president. We need a president that can unite America to realize our nation’s unlimited potential.”

The Democrat added that the country deserves better and “President Biden should do what’s best for the country and withdraw from the race.” 

The United States Senator Joe Manchin questions FBI Director Christopher Wray during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the FBI's proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on June 4, 2024, in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is denying a report from the Washington Post that he planned to break with President Biden during an appearance on a Sunday talk show before senior Democrats ran interference.

Sources told The Washington Post that the recently turned independent senator had informed key allies of his plans, following Biden's widely panned debate performance against former President Trump.

But Manchin later told Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich that the report was “completely wrong” and “never happened.”

“[The Post] must be desperate for a story,” Manchin said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a daily White House news briefing at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 2, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

Reporters hammered White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Tuesday to answer for President Biden's widely panned debate performance last week that re-ignited concerns over his mental fitness.

"All of us saw what happened on Thursday, where [Biden] simply could not form coherent answers to many ... of the questions," one reporter asked, warning that his next question was a delicate one and the president "may not like to hear it" if he's watching.

"But I think the American people need to get a yes or a no answer on this: Does President Biden, at 81 years old, have Alzheimer's, or any form of dementia or degenerative illness that causes these sorts of lapses?" the reporter asked. "And it's a yes or no question."

"I have an answer for you, are you ready for it," Jean-Pierre responded, looking visibly annoyed. "It's a no. And I hope you're asking the other guy the same exact question"

The "other guy" presumably meant Biden's opponent, former President Trump.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday fended off questions from reporters on President Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week.

Jean-Pierre conceded that the president “did not have a great night” and had been dealing with a cold and a “hoarse voice.”

She then pivoted to defending Biden’s record while in office.

“He knows right from wrong. He knows how to tell the truth. And again, he knows how to deliver for the American people,” Jean-Pierre said, repeating some of Biden’s talking points from a rally he held in Raleigh, North Carolina the day after the debate.

Reporters pushed back on her answer, noting Biden had more than just a cold.

“He was trailing off, he didn’t answer some questions,” one reporter noted, asking if there were any plans to release Biden’s medical records to give Americans a better sense of the president’s “mental acuity.”

Another reporter asked whether the president got a neurological scan after the debate. Jean-Pierre defended the president, saying he had released medical records as recently as February.

Former Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haas told MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" Monday that President Biden “needs to be urged to step down” following last weeks widely criticized presidential debate with former President Donald Trump.

Speaking to the panel, Haas said debating whether or not Biden was a good president was misguided.

“He’s 81. He’s going to be 82 in November. He’s going to be 86 … while he’s still in the oval office,” Haas said. “Does anyone seriously think that in four and a half years from now, Joe Biden is going to be what he needs to be?”

The U.S. diplomat added that Biden is no longer in a position where he can be a successful president four and a half years from now.

“He needs to be urged to step down,” Haas said.

Click here to read the full story on Haas' MSNBC appearance.

President Biden departed a briefing on his administration's efforts to address extreme weather without taking questions from reporters Tuesday.

Biden spoke for less than 10 minutes at the event before departing the stage. The move comes as he is facing unprecedented criticism over his age and whether he is cognitively capable of carrying out his presidential duties.

Rumors of panic within the Democratic Party have continued to spread since the president's disastrous performance in Thursday's debate against former President Trump.

The New York Times editorial board called on Biden to withdraw from the race soon after the debate. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, became the first elected Democrat to call for Biden to drop out on Tuesday.

So far, top Democrats have remained supportive of Biden, though rumors of unease have leaked out from behind closed doors.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, called on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race on Tuesday, becoming the first elected Democrat to do so.

"Our overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang," Doggett wrote. "Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory...President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024."

"I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same," Doggett wrote in a statement.

"My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved. Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden's first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so," he concluded.

Top Democrats have remained publicly aligned with Biden in the wake of his disastrous debate performance, but rumors of growing panic within the party have continued to leak.

A former longtime Democratic lawmaker is once again calling for President Biden to step aside and end his 2024 bid for a second term in the White House. 

"We have to rip the band aid off! Too much is at stake," former Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio emphasized in a social media post on Tuesday.

Pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris, Ryan argued that "@VP has significantly grown into her job, she will destroy Trump in debate, highlight choice issue, energize our base, bring back young voters and give us generational change. It’s time!"

in his post, Ryan linked to an opinion piece he wrote in Newsweek which starts with him noting that "I ran for President in 2020. I was the first Presidential candidate to endorse Joe Biden in 2020. I love America. I love our Party. I love Joe Biden. The Democratic Nominee in 2024 should be Kamala Harris."

Biden, who at age 81 is the oldest president in the nation's history, is facing the roughest stretch of his bid for a second term in the White House. This, after his halting delivery and stumbling answers at last week's first debate with former President Trump sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party politicians and donors for Biden to step aside as the party's 2024 standard-bearer.

In his two 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate appearances in the summer of 2019, the then-congressman from Ohio known for his populist outreach to blue-collar workers tangled a couple of times with the then-former Vice President Joe Biden.

However, after dropping out of the nomination race in the autumn of 2019, Ryan endorsed Biden.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser

The panic following last week’s disastrous debate performance by President Biden has shifted the spotlight to potential replacements for the president at the top of the Democratic ticket, though most would still likely be underdogs against former President Trump.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are two names that have emerged as potential replacements for Biden if he were to leave the race, but both have trailed behind Trump in polling of a hypothetical matchup.

Whitmer would fare the best in a matchup with Trump, with a Fox News poll from November showing the Democratic governor within the margin of error of the former president, garnering 46% of the support of registered voters compared to 48% for Trump.

The two-term governor of the crucial Midwestern swing state could be an attractive option for Democrats, though Whitmer has reportedly expressed annoyance that her name is being mixed in as a potential replacement for Biden. Responding to a recent Politico report that the Michigan governor warned the Biden campaign the president no longer had a shot at winning her home state following the debate, Whitmer took to social media and argued anyone who thinks she would make such a claim is "full of s---."

If Whitmer were unwilling to step up for Biden, Newsom, who has been one of the more visible Democrats supporting Biden, would make a natural choice to replace the president if he were to end his campaign.

California’s Democratic governor ran slightly worse against Trump in the November poll, garnering 45% of the support of registered voters compared to 49% for the former president.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Michael Lee

President emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. diplomat Richard Haass demanded President Biden’s handlers to get him to step down as the presumptive Democratic nominee ahead of the election.

Speaking on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Tuesday, Haass argued that Biden is not fit for another term in office due to his age and that there needs to be a "change."

"I really believe that Joe Biden is no longer positioned that he can be a successful president four and a half years from now," Haass said during the broadcast. 

Haass, who served as Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department during the George W. Bush administration, appeared on the program to talk about his recent column, titled, "After Biden’s Debate Performance, the World Should Prepare for Trump."

The piece argued that Biden’s debate performance hammered home the president's "apparent physical and mental infirmities" to voters and that his performance "could even threaten turn him into something of a lame duck." 

During the "Morning Joe" segment, Haass said Biden’s debate performance not only called into question his ability to win re-election over Trump, but his ability to be a competent president for another four and a half years. 

"He’s 81. He’s going to be 82 in November. He’s going to be 86 if he is re-elected before – while he is still in the Oval Office," the commentator said. 

This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News' Gabriel Hays

Rep. Mike Quigley suggested Tuesday that President Biden take into account the downballot effects of his debate fiasco.

Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois, responded to concerns about Biden's leadership as a growing number of media voices are calling on the president to withdraw after his debate with former President Trump.

"I think [Biden's] four years are one of the great presidencies of our lifetime," Quigley said on CNN. "But I think he has to be honest with himself." 

"This is a decision he's going to have to make. He clearly has to understand … his decision not only impacts who's going to serve in the White House the next four years, but who's going to serve in the Senate, who's going to serve in the House, and it will have implications for decades to come," Quigley continued.

"It sounds like you're actually open to the idea that it might be the right decision for him to step aside?" CNN's Kasie Hunt asked Quigley. 

"I think what I'm stressing is that it has to be his decision," Quigley responded. "But we have to be honest with ourselves." 

"It wasn't just a horrible night," the congressman said. "But I won't go beyond that out of my respect and understanding of President Joe Biden, a very proud person who has served us extraordinarily well for 50 years. But it's his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts not just his race but all the other races that are coming in November." 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Jeffrey Clark

Polling expert Nate Silver argued Monday that President Biden's debate performance has put him at serious risk of not being the Democratic Party's nominee in November and called it one of the "craziest asks" in political history for him to seek a second term.

"I think the probability that Biden isn't the nominee on Nov. 5 is closer to underrated than overrated," Silver wrote Monday in a thread on X.

Silver added that Democrats face many risks maintaining Biden as the head of the party ticket. Biden, already the oldest president in American history, would be 86 by the end of a second term if re-elected. Ronald Reagan, who held the record before him, was 77 when he left office in 1989.

"It's fundamentally a terrible idea to ask the public to make the guy they saw on Thursday president until he's 86," Silver wrote, explaining that Biden leaving "[p]robably won't involve him giving up the office rationally or easily." 

Silver wrote that "[p]ost-debate polls," while bad now, may become even worse. 

He warned that further "senior moments" from Biden are "probably unsurvivable" and that the weaker his campaign becomes, the more likely it is people will abandon the campaign. 

The campaign is already weathering difficult calls and questions from donors, as well as a swelling list of liberal media figures urging Biden to drop out of the race for fear of losing to former President Trump. Silver said it was "fundamentally untenable" to nominate Biden for another four-year term.

Some of President Biden's top officials are "scared s---less" of displeasing him in daily briefings, according to a new report.

The president's inner circle has become tighter and tighter as he has become more difficult to deal with in day-to-day business, according to a Tuesday report from Politico.

"It’s like, ‘You can’t include that, that will set him off,’ or ‘Put that in, he likes that,’" a senior administration official told Politico on background. 

The quote continued, "It’s a Rorschach test, not a briefing. Because he is not a pleasant person to be around when he’s being briefed. It’s very difficult, and people are scared [s---less] of him."

The official told Politico that Biden is unwilling to take advice from outside his small inner circle, becoming increasingly isolated from wider public opinion and input.

"He doesn’t take advice from anyone other than those few top aides, and it becomes a perfect storm because he just gets more and more isolated from their efforts to control it," the official reportedly told Politico.

White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andre Bates pushed back on the Politico report's claim that staff are afraid of the president — telling Fox News Digital, "That’s simply not who [Biden] is."

Politico also reported that Biden's family members cast blame widely on Biden staffers, complaining that they did not adequately prepare the president to go on the attack more, to focus more on laying out his vision for the next four years rather than getting bogged down in defending his record, and that they allowed him to become overworked without enough rest beforehand. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Timothy H. J. Nerozzi

Donors supporting President Biden’s re-election bid reportedly are now backing a "Plan B" and are describing the situation as "Armageddon" following the 81-year-old's widely panned debate performance against former President Trump last week. 

The development comes as Biden’s campaign announced that it has raised $264 million over the last three months, including at least $27 million since last Thursday's debate. But behind the scenes, donors are spooked over the way Biden handled himself onstage, reports say. 

"Unless he shakes up the campaign and shows leadership, it’s going to be a really, really tough time with money," said one Democrat, identified by The Washington Post as a top fundraiser. 

The source added that "it’s Armageddon" now among Biden donors and "people have got to see changes." 

The newspaper reports that another major supporter who has given to Biden created a Google Docs poll following the debate to question other donors about where they stand. 

That person said of the 65 donors who responded, around 74% supported the option of "we need a Plan B" -- which includes consideration of new Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates – while 15% said they stood behind Biden and 11% were undecided, according to The Washington Post. 

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report

President Biden's campaign chair fielded questions from distraught donors on Monday, but assured them that the president is “probably in better health than most of us.”

Campaign chair Jennifer O'Malley Dillon made damage control calls to top Biden donors throughout the weekend. Biden pollster Molly Murphy also admitted that Biden had a "bad debate," and assured donors on the call that the campaign is "not ignoring" the feedback, according to NBC News.

“I will start with what we all know, but we are seeing it in our own polls, as well: The president had a bad performance in Thursday’s debate,” Biden pollster Molly Murphy said on the call. “He has been upfront about that, and that is coming through in our polls. We’re looking at that. We are not ignoring that and we want to understand what that means for voters.”

One donor told NBC that they were not convinced by the call and plans to redirect donations away from Biden's campaign.

“I  won’t sit on the sidelines, but it's hard and getting a lot harder to donate directly to the campaign given their judgement,” the donor reportedly said.

Veteran Democratic Party strategist James Carville called for President Biden to step down and allow another Democrat to take his place in the 2024 election.

Biden’s performance in Thursday’s presidential debate sparked yet another national conversation about his ability to serve. Many of his staunchest supporters among the media and the Democratic Party have since called for him to step down in order to prevent a victory by former President Trump.

Carville told CNN host Jake Tapper on Monday that 72% of voters in America "want something different" and that the real question is "if the Democratic Party can‘t produce something different that 72% people want, then why do we exist? What are we here for? The country is clamoring for change!"

He went on to say, "Everybody saw what they saw Thursday night. I don‘t take any pleasure in this," noting that he himself will be 80 in October, and old age isn’t something that can be fought.

When asked what the Democratic Party actually should do, Carville suggested, "something different" and that some amount of upheaval would be unavoidable.

"I don’t know, it‘ll be messy. It’ll be a mess, and you know, that‘s what change is," he said, "But if the Democratic Party is so committed to the status quo, and so committed to sticking with something that three quarters of the country doesn‘t want, then we have to say, ‘Why do we exist?’"

"I really like President Biden, but man, the country wants something new, let them have it," he said.

Carville then derided people making excuses for why Biden performed poorly in the debate, "arguing whether he had a bad night or a cold or the staff overworked him or all of the utter nonsense that we’re hearing."

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Jamie Joseph

As calls for President Biden to retire have increased in the Democratic Party following Thursday night's presidential debate against former President Donald Trump, replacing him could prove to be an uphill legal hurdle, albeit one that some political groups are already preparing for. Biden's troubles come amid a recent series of progressive figures in Congress and the courts who have refused to retire despite pressure from liberal activists.

"The leverage is pretty much all with President Biden," Mike Howell, executive director of the Heritage Oversight Project – a conservative watchdog group – told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

"It is much more difficult to forcefully replace him than it would be for him to voluntarily withdraw, and so I expect that is the nature of the conversations. I think the only people right now that are fighting to keep President Biden on the ballot are President Biden, Jill Biden and, interestingly enough, me, because we will sue to make sure his name stays on the ballot."

Howell added it's "not easy" to fill a replacement for a presidential candidate, which would create a "massive legal and logistical nightmare for the replacement candidate."

"There are precedents of candidates dying and other state and local races before, but this is unchartered territory, because it's presidential and so what you have are basically 50 different steps, sets of rules, laws, procedures and political environments that they have to navigate through," Howell said. "And so ultimately, whatever they do, it will be so fact dependent that certain states will become more important than others."

And Biden isn't the first Democrat politician or liberal political figure to disappoint progressives by refusing such calls to retire.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Jamie Joseph

CNN host Jake Tapper accused Democratic officials of using Orwellian tactics to spin President Biden’s debate performance.

Tapper co-moderated last week's presidential debate, which was widely seen as a disastrous night for Biden. Many Democrats and liberals in the media have called for the president to step down and be replaced with another nominee. As for the Democrats still defending Biden, Tapper argued they are disingenuously downplaying or ignoring signs of the president's age-related decline.

Tapper noted in his opening monologue on Monday's "The Lead" that "there is a pattern, discernible pattern, of Democratic officials seemingly trying to convince you, the public, to not believe what you saw and what you heard with your eyes and with your ears on Thursday night."

After playing a montage of Biden’s most criticized moments from the debate, Tapper said, "Democratic officials have tried to spin this in many ways. They said President Biden just had a cold. They said it was just one off night, akin to when President Obama in 2012 was rusty and seemed a little huffy." 

However, he continued, "behind the scenes, make no mistake, most Democratic officials witnessed the same shocking spectacle that you did, the difficulty that the presumptive Democratic nominee, the current President of the United States, had just articulating his basic thoughts during the 90 minutes of the debate."

He promised that wouldn't happen on his show and said he'd be talking to those "more willing to speak freely, honestly, and candidly about the candidate than the people running the Biden campaign, the people close to President Biden. And frankly, most Democratic officials across the country."He promised that wouldn't happen on his show and said he'd be talking to those "more willing to speak freely, honestly, and candidly about the candidate than the people running the Biden campaign, the people close to President Biden. And frankly, most Democratic officials across the country."

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Alexander Hall

The Biden campaign held a call with donors on Monday to assuage their concerns after President Biden's shaky debate performance, as critics of the president within the Democratic Party are calling for him to withdraw from the race entirely. 

"It was a damage control call," one member of the meeting told Axios. 

Biden's campaign has faced a flurry of questions and held multiple meetings with donors to project confidence and answer questions from donors in the days following the president's debate with former President Trump.  

"I don't know what the pathway forward is, and I think they are trying to figure that out, too," an anonymous donor told Axios. "We all saw what we saw."

Some of Biden's top donors are reportedly breaking from the president, with Hollywood supporters reporting that the president's debate has made them anxious and disillusioned, according to Variety. 

"It’s just really hard to see how we keep supporting him. He needs to dig deep about whether he can in good conscience be our nominee," Hannah Linkenhoker, an advisor to several donors, told the outlet.

A top campaign official held a phone call with Biden's top donors on Sunday and stated that if Biden were to drop out of the race, all his funds would go to Vice President Kamala Harris. Some of the donors went so far as to ask for refunds, according to NBC News.The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Jeffrey Clark.

Top Democratic donor Whitney Tilson says a House Democratic lawmaker texted him following President Biden's disastrous debate performance to say that Biden's candidacy may never recover from the night.

"Biden’s debate performance was a catastrophe from which there may be no recovery,” the lawmaker said, according to the New York Times.

Tilson only shared the quote on condition of anonymity for the lawmaker, the Times reported.

The news comes amid growing unease behind the scenes of the Democratic party. While party leaders remain lock-step behind Biden in public, reports of panic, shock and even anger continue to spill out from the party machine.

Biden campaign chairwoman Jennifer O'Malley Dillon was on damage control Sunday and Monay in calls with Biden's top donors, some of whom reportedly asked for refunds.

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by Fox News contributor Liz Peek:

By the time this column is published,  President Joe Biden may have announced that he is pulling out of the 2024 presidential campaign. There is simply no other path forward for the incumbent president. The entire country now knows what audiences of Fox News and other right-leaning news organizations have known for some time: Biden is in rapid decline and cannot possibly serve for another four years. 

A new CBS/YouGov poll conducted after the debate showed that 72% of the public no longer thinks Joe Biden has the "cognitive and mental health to serve as president"; almost half of Democrats say he should not be running.  

The White House, and party leaders, have been lying to the public for some time about Biden’s capability. They deserve to be punished for their duplicity; polls suggest voters will deliver that comeuppance in November. 

Biden’s family gathered over the weekend at Camp David, purportedly to have their photo taken, but surely also to discuss the future of the campaign. Even if they have decided to throw in the towel, there is unlikely to be an immediate announcement. Democrat leaders will have to plan the difficult path forward. That there is evidently no Plan B in the works is astonishing; where have they been? 

Those echoing Biden’s vows to keep on fighting are either delusional or self-interested. Vice President Kamala Harris can be counted on to support Joe’s ongoing campaign; she knows there’s not a chance in a million that Biden, if somehow reelected, will still be president in 2028. She stands to become the country’s first female president, simply by sticking it out and convincing voters Joe can do the same. As Nikki Haley so presciently said many months ago, "A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris."  

In addition, Harris understands that if there is a coup – if Democrat grandees assume the power to pick a new candidate – she will not top the list. True, her approval ratings are currently higher than Joe’s (39.4% vs 37.9% according to Nate Silver’s Project 538), but she proved a dismal campaigner in the 2020 primaries and has been a dreadful vice president. 

First Lady Jill Biden has received scathing criticism for pushing her feeble husband forward. Indeed, her over-the-top boosterism – her insistence that he’s sharp as a tack and absurd lauding of his debate performance – is cringe-worthy.  

But, beyond personal ambitions (who wouldn’t want to be on Vogue’s cover this month?), Jill is also trying to protect her stepson, and knows that without Joe in the White House, Hunter could end up in jail. He has already been convicted of a felony, a real one unlike the manufactured charges brought against former President Donald Trump, and faces another trial shortly. 

President Biden is facing intense scrutiny over his apparent reliance on teleprompters in closed-door meetings with Democratic donors in the fallout of last week's presidential debate.

MSNBC political analyst John Heilemann revealed on his "Impolitic" podcast that donors are "freaked out" that Biden can't go off script during their private fundraisers. 

"One of the things, to go back to my various donor friends, something that in, of course, the last six months, has come up a bunch of times with donors who have had Joe Biden at their house, they are all freaked out by one thing that you guys will understand. He shows up- and it's a group of people, the friendliest people you can imagine, they're all writing him big checks. He speaks for about 15 minutes on prompter at every little dinner event," Heilemann said on Friday's podcast. 

"He never ad-libs. He's never just off prompter… I mean, you're sitting with a bunch of, like, 40 multimillionaires who are writing you giant checks. You have 15 minutes of remarks to give over dinner, and you're on prompter. Again, does that make him a bad president? No. Does that make him unfit to be president? No. Does it freak donors out that he needs to be on prompter? It freaks them out," he said.

"This was an hour and a half off prompter, that's what it looks like right now. And he got better as the debate went on, but in its worst moments, it was like, that's why they keep him on prompter. And that is not an issue that's gonna go away," Heilemann added.

That explosive claim was confirmed the next day by Anthony Scaramucci, former President Trump's short-lived White House communications director-turned-Biden supporter.

"I went to President Biden‘s fundraiser in East Hampton and I thought he did quite well reading the teleprompter today and meeting with people," Scaramucci wrote on X before warning, "However, that is not going to be enough to prove to the American people that he’s up for another 4 years."

The Wall Street Journal also reported on the "overly controlled" donor meetings involving his use of a teleprompter. "Some donors described one of the events as overly controlled, with Biden reading from a teleprompter and providing little one-on-one time for meaningful exchanges with the donors who propel the campaign," the Journal wrote Saturday.

This is an excerpt from an article by Joseph A. Wulfsohn

Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told President Biden's campaign that her state was no longer winnable after Biden's disastrous debate performance last week, Politico reported Monday.

The news arose from a call between Whitmer and Biden campaign Chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon. Sources familiar with the call told the outlet that Whitmer expressed frustration that her name was being raised as a replacement for Biden in the wake of the debate.

She disavowed any effort to force Biden to drop out of the race, something a growing number of Democrats are pushing for. Another source told Politico that she gave Dillon a general warning that Michigan was no longer winnable for Biden following his debate performance.

Whitmer's reaction mirrors that of other prominent Democrats, who have rallied to Biden in public while reportedly panicking and raising doubts about his candidacy in private.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and former House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., reaffirmed their support for Biden during television appearances Sunday.

Pelosi claimed Biden only struggled in Thursday's debate due to former President Trump's on-stage "lies," while Clyburn argued his poor performance was merely due to "preparation overload."

President Biden's campaign staff were on damage control this weekend, working to shore up support among a top donor class deeply shaken by Biden's performance at last week's debate.

A top campaign official held a phone call with Biden's top donors on Sunday and stated that if Biden were to drop out of the race, all his funds would go to Vice President Kamala Harris. Some of the donors went so far as to ask for refunds, according to NBC News.

Campaign Chair Jennifer O'Malley Dillon is reportedly scheduled to hold another call with more donors later Monday.

Donors and even some of Biden's family members have raised questions about Biden's debate preparations and whether his aides might be to blame for Thursday's disaster. The White House pushed back on the suggestion in a statement.

"The aides who prepped the President have been with him for years, often decades, seeing him through victories and challenges. He maintains strong confidence in them," Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.

Panicked Democrats across the country are raising questions about Biden's candidacy following the debate, though it remains extremely unlikely that Biden would drop out.