On Thursday night, “The news of the debate was not Trump saying crazy, untrue things, though he did so in abundance. It was Biden. The President of the United States, eighty-one years old and asking to be returned to office until age eighty-six, looked and sounded old. Too old. His voice was muffled. He lost his train of thought. He raced through answers. When Trump talked, the split screen showed Biden staring, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, in a way that made him look even older.” says Susan Glasser in The New Yorker.
“Biden failed to show the strength and spark he displayed at the State of the Union address in March and in the national debates he has been participating in since his first bid for the presidency in 1987,” says Susan Page in USA Today. “He had spent days in seclusion at Camp David preparing for this one. Yet he rarely delivered crisp, compelling answers, though he fared a bit better as the end of the debate neared.”
About halfway through the debate, people close to Biden put out word that he had a cold, says The New York Times. If so, Biden’s campaign needed to announce it before the debate.
“Biden's halting debate performance on Thursday night has led some in his own party to begin questioning whether he should be replaced on the ballot before November,” says The Associated Press.
There's no evidence Biden is willing to end his campaign, and it would be nearly impossible for Democrats to replace him unless he chooses to step aside, AP says.
Every state already has held its presidential primary. Democratic rules mandate that the delegates Biden won stay bound to support him at the party’s upcoming national convention unless he tells them he’s leaving the race, AP says.
The conventions and convention rules are controlled by the political parties. The Democratic National Committee could convene before the convention opens Aug. 19 and change the way things will work, but that isn’t likely as long as Biden wants to continue seeking reelection, says AP.
Vice President Harris can’t be swapped in for Biden at the top of the ticket by default, AP says. And Biden couldn't decree that she replace him if he were to decide to leave the race.
Here is a fact check from PolitiFact.
And here is a fact check from AP.
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