‘Defcon 1 moment’: Biden’s debate performance sends Democrats into panic

Democratic operatives and officials have reacted with panic and dismay after Joe Biden’s stumbling performance in the presidential debate refocused attention on his age and sharpness.

David Plouffe, a Democratic strategist and former Obama campaign official, called the debate “kind of a Defcon 1 moment”.

“The biggest thing in this election is voters’ concerns – and it’s both swing voters and base voters – with his age, and those were compounded tonight,” Plouffe said.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, appeared on CNN and MSNBC after to reiterate the reasons voters should side with Biden, but even she acknowledged his poor performance. “It was a slow start, there’s no question about that, but I thought it was a strong finish,” the vice-president said.

Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California, said she loves Biden and knows he’s a good man, but the evening was “heartbreaking in many ways”.

“This is a big political moment. There’s panic in the Democratic party. It’s going to be a long night.”

Nicholas Kristof, the leftwing political columnist, said on social media that he hopes Biden reflects on the debate and decides to withdraw from the race, letting the convention decide who should be the nominee. He suggested someone like Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Ohio senator Sherrod Brown or commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.

Former Missouri senator Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC that Biden had one job, and he didn’t do it: He needed to “reassure America that he was up to the job at his age, and he failed”. Democrats are doing more than hand-wringing in private and wondering why the Biden surrogates, who were performing well to counter the Biden debate performance, aren’t the ones at the top of the ticket, she said.

“I know how this felt tonight: it felt like a gut punch,” McCaskill said.

Cable commentators were left wondering whether there be a contested Democratic convention if so, how Biden might be replaced – an option some say is not possible even while others are talking about little else.

On the liberal network MSNBC, anchor Nicole Wallace laid out how a candidate could release their delegates, while fellow journalist Joy Reid said someone sent her the rules for doing so.

“No one is saying it’s going to happen, it’s very unlikely,” Reid said, but added that the atmosphere among Democrats was “approaching panic” .

From the start, Biden faltered in the debate, the first of the 2024 presidential election. He was hard to hear, mumbling and muffling his lines, some of which – were they delivered with the intended force – could have landed successfully. He said Donald Trump has “the morals of an alley cat”, but even that one-liner was difficult to discern.

Biden had challenged the former president to a debate, set earlier than normal, to shift the momentum of the race. He had delivered a strong State of the Union speech in which he appeared sharp and energetic, and his campaign appeared to calculate that a debate could give his approval ratings some lift at a time when he is polling behind Trump.

Instead of a victory march, or even the more common volleying over who claims to have won the debate, it was clear that Democrats saw Biden’s performance as a liability.

Related: Biden’s poor performance and Trump’s lies: four key takeaways from the debate

Both Harris and Gavin Newsom, the California governor and Biden surrogate, appeared on various TV networks later in the evening to talk about how Trump lied and deflected throughout the debate – and sought to remind voters what a Trump presidency was like and could be again.

“It was a slow start, there’s no question about that, but I thought it was a strong finish,” the vice-president said on MSNBC before launching into a list of Biden’s accomplishments, saying Biden fights for the people while Trump fights for himself.

Newsom, on MSNBC, called the questions “unhelpful” and “unnecessary”. The conversations are “rabbit holes” that detract from Biden’s record and hinder democracy and the country’s fate.

Related: Biden struggles to land lines as Trump lies in first presidential debate

“We’ve got to have the back of this president,” Newsom said. “You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”

Some Democrats laid out ways the Biden camp could turn the moment back toward him and get his performance out of voters’ minds: send out his surrogates to support him, put strong speakers like Harris or Newsom on the morning shows, or announce an initiative or endorsement or big idea in order to change the narrative.