Joe Biden’s unexpectedly poor performance in the debate with Donald Trump has spread panic and confusion in the Democratic partyeven to people close to the president.

Despite the scenarios that saw the light of day yesterday about replacing the 81-year-old candidate, Biden declares that he is not withdrawing from the race and declares that he is confident that he can beat Trump in the November election.

Thus, he returned to the pre-election campaign, certainly without the uproar from the completely failed debate having stopped. One just has to read it relentless editorial by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, of a “friend” as he says of the Democratic president. But to stop Trump, he wrote, “the president needs to come out and say he won’t run for re-election.” “Joe Biden, a good man, a good president, is in no condition to run for re-election,” wrote Friedman, who said he “cried” watching the 81-year-old Democrat, pale, slurring his words and stuttering for 90 minutes in front of the CNN cameras.

In the same climate, the cover of Time magazine speaks of panic and shows the exit to Biden.

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Maria Shriver, niece of the assassinated president “JFK” and an ally of Joe Biden, told X she was heartbroken by this disastrous performance.

“He had one thing to do (during the debate) and that was to reassure America that he is capable of remaining president at his age. And he failed at that,” former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill told MSNBC.

The senator from Pennsylvania John Fetterman he told his fellow Democrats to “chill out.” In the same tone o Josh Shapirothe Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, urged Democrats to stop worrying and get to work.

“Joe Biden had a bad debate, yes, but Donald Trump is a bad president,” Shapiro said.

His appearance Joe Biden debate was a “nightmare” for his Democratic party, Hill reporter Amy Parnes wrote, citing a Biden ally who said, “I see us losing this election in slow motion.”

“I’ve watched a lot of Biden talks. I’ve never heard him sound so weak,” Jacques Beauchamp of Vox media wrote to X. “Someone had to pull the fire alarm and help Biden out of there,” added author Baskar Sunkara, referring to Jamal Bowman’s infamous incident in Congress.

Journalist Jake Sherman, claiming to have had many post-debate conversations with Democratic congressional senators, wrote: “Their opinion is this was not a bad debate. It was something much worse. In their view, Biden didn’t even meet the lowest bar.”

Meanwhile, his advisers were scrambling on Friday to try to assuage the concerns of sponsors who were preparing to dig deep into their pockets over the weekend.

Today, Biden is in New York to attend a fundraiser with LGBTQ+ supporters. The event is expected to bring in more than $3 million, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Tickets for the event ranged from $250 to $500,000, according to an invitation seen by CNN.

Panicked moves or cool handling?

Biden’s campaign team’s attempt to justify his poor performance with a “cold” he had by drawing attention to Donald Trump’s “lies” failed.

The American media reports a real “panic” in the ranks of the Democrats, four months before the American elections and about six weeks before the convention that is supposed to ratify the nomination of the American president. And already during the debate, Democratic officials began to think about the possible processes and procedures for replacing Biden with another candidate. Panicked Democrats who exchanged messages wonder if Biden would consider dropping out of the presidential race.

“The Democrats will have to decide at their party convention in mid-August whether they will really participate in the November election with Joe Biden,” Michael Link, a German government official in charge of bipartisanship, told Olaf Scholz’s government. cooperation with the USA.

So far, however, none of the “big names” in the Democratic Party have spoken publicly about this prospect.

Joe Biden is still planning to participate in a second debate in September, CNN reported today, citing a Biden adviser.

Officially, the line remains support for Biden, who continues the activities planned.

Four months until the elections, an eternity in politics

If Joe Biden throws in a white towel, and resigns as a candidate, the Democrats will gather in August in Chicago in an “open” convention, during which the votes of the delegates collected by the American president during the primaries will be reviewed.

Such a scenario has not happened since 1968. The party then had to find a replacement for President Lyndon B. Johnson after the latter abandoned the fight for a second term in the midst of the Vietnam War.

Outgoing Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated and lost to Republican Richard Nixon.

Interviews with undecided voters confirmed it was a bad night for Biden. They described his appearance as weak, embarrassing and difficult to watch.

Trump, 78, has also faced questions about his fitness for office given his conviction last month in New York for concealing payments to a porn star, his efforts to sway the 2020 election and his chaotic tenure . However, despite Trump’s usual barrage of lies during the debate, everyone’s attention was on the current president and his… crooked steps.

The debate at CNN headquarters in Atlanta took place far earlier than any other modern presidential debate, more than four months — an eternity in American politics — before the Nov. 5 election.

That could mitigate the damage for Biden, as the memory of the performance may fade and the news creates new headlines and new topicality.

Trump, for example, is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on July 11, just days before his party convenes to formally endorse him as the nominee. He still faces three other criminal charges, though none appear likely to go to trial before November.

With polls showing a neck-and-neck election battle before the debate, even a small change could change the trajectory of the campaign.

At a Waffle House restaurant in Atlanta in the early hours today, Biden stopped for food on his way back to the campaign trail, telling reporters, “I think we did well.”

Asked if he was worried about his performance, he said, “No. It’s hard to talk to a liar.”

Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama, warned Democrats not to discount Biden’s performance. “Telling people they didn’t see what they saw is not the way to answer this,” he wrote in a post on X.

For those concerned about the planet and US allies, Biden’s poor performance is forcing them to start preparing for a Trump comeback. “Trump didn’t win, but Biden may have collapsed,” says Kunihiko Miyake, a Japanese former diplomat and now director of research at the think tank Canon Institute for Global Studies.

As for US enemies and rivals: Russian President Vladimir Putin he didn’t wake up in the middle of the night to watch the debate and Moscow will not comment on anything that concerns an internal matter of US policy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced.