Analysis | Can Biden recover from his damaging debate performance? (2025)

There was only one question on the minds of Democrats as they awoke Friday after what many of them judged as the worst performance by a presidential candidate in the modern history of politics: Can President Biden recover?

Other presidents have stumbled in debates, but none quite like what happened to Biden on Thursday night. His overriding goal was to dispel doubts that he is too old and too frail to lead the country for another four years. Instead, he reinforced those doubts, and in a forum — the first debate, hosted by CNN and broadcast seemingly everywhere — that could be the single most-watched event of the 2024 campaign.

Biden has time to recover. This debate was the earliest in history, and the election is more than four months away, normally an eternity in politics. Turnarounds can happen. Time is not the issue. But this is not a matter of simply changing campaign tactics or producing clever new ads. His advisers can help; they can offer ideas. But this mostly falls on Biden’s shoulders.

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Is he up to the task? Can he persuade enough voters to forget what they witnessed Thursday night and look at him in a new light and reassess whether he has the physical and mental stamina to serve another four years? Does he have the capacity to overcome the damage he did to his candidacy — and the impact it had on Democrats, alarmed at the prospect of former president Donald Trump returning to the White House? Can he make Trump as much the issue as himself?

It’s not as though Trump had a stellar evening. Far from it. He sought to tell voters that things were better when he was president, but in his own performance, he was the same Trump who was turned out of office in 2020, the same Trump the country has seen for nearly nine years, perhaps even an exaggerated version.

The former president lied his way through the evening, spewing statement after statement that had little or no basis in fact — one wild claim after another. He blustered his way through pointed questions about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He declined again to say that he would accept the results of the election if he loses.

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It might not matter, thanks to the damage Biden did to himself. The president won many of the substantive exchanges. His performance grew steadier as the debate progressed. But first impressions matter, and for Biden they were worse than many Democrats had feared. And though he improved, there were enough stumbles, pauses, mixed-up words and blank stares throughout the debate that those first impressions could stick.

That the two men dislike one another is well known, but their exchanges became increasingly nasty and personal as the debate progressed. For many watching Thursday, the 90-minute debate was a reminder of why so many people are so dissatisfied with the choice they are being given. But unless something changes, this is the choice.

The alarm in Democratic circles was evident minutes after the opening of the debate. Panicked text messages followed, ricocheting around and around. Some Democrats wanted to turn away, it was so painful to watch. The same questions that had been asked for months but had faded into the background popped up again with new urgency: Will Biden step aside before the convention? Will some Democrats go to him to urge him to quit the race? If so, who? Can he be replaced at the convention in August? Who would be a better candidate?

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None of that is assured. Biden is proud and he is stubborn. And he believes he is best-equipped to defeat Trump, as the only person to have done so before. To some Democrats, his decision to seek a second term, after saying in 2020 that he would be a bridge to a new generation, was selfish, putting his own interests ahead of the needs of his party — and, as many of them see it in the face of Trump’s challenge, jeopardizing the future of the republic.

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But this leaves the Democrats in a precarious position. Without a turnaround, Thursday’s debate could make Biden’s chances of winning an electoral college majority more difficult. He was already in a challenging position. Extended talk of replacing him will further diminish him. An open convention is an invitation to more chaos inside the party. As one Democrat put it after the debate, “Biden is going to have to move aggressively in the next 24 hours to stem the panic.”

Before the debate, Trump held a narrow advantage in the election. National polls showed a nearly dead-even contest, in contrast to four years ago, when Biden held a steady lead throughout the campaign. Trump’s position looked even stronger in the battleground states that will decide who wins in the electoral college. His advantages in several cases are well within the margin of error, but they point to the very narrow pathway that Biden must follow to win.

Democratic and Republican strategists will eagerly await the first round of post-debate polls to see what movement there might be. Historically, debates can prompt some change in the balance between the candidates, but the changes are generally not long-lasting. A falloff for Biden will only intensify concerns among many Democrats about him as their nominee.

After the debate, Vice President Harris tried to mitigate the damage with interviews on cable networks. She stressed the contrasting agendas of the two candidates and highlighted the threats she said Trump poses to the country. She recounted the administration’s record, as Biden had tried to do in the debate. She focused on abortion rights, which is the most potent electoral issue Democrats have had for the past two years.

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Harris can lessen the fallout. She can try to reassure panicky Democrats to step back and see the bigger picture. She can remind voters about the stakes involved in November and what Trump represents. But she cannot rescue Biden. Only he can save himself.

Inside the campaign, there is realism about what happened and hope that the president can reset the election as a choice, not a referendum. In this view, Biden’s positions on many issues are more popular than Trump’s — he won the debate on substance — and many voters still recoil at the prospect of a second Trump term, regardless of how they judged the president’s debate performance. In the cruel world of presidential campaigns, however, substance may not overtake style and perceptions of fitness.

One fear among Democrats is that voters disillusioned with the choice will simply stay home — or cast a ballot for a third-party candidate. That could hurt Biden more than Trump. Even before the debate, there was some evidence that voters who might naturally support a Democratic nominee were lukewarm toward the president and looking for an exit ramp. Biden cannot afford to let that grow.

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David Plouffe, who was Barack Obama’s campaign manager in 2008 and went on to be a senior adviser in the White House, called the debate “the most important 90 minutes of the campaign and therefore a significant missed opportunity” for Biden.

That was putting it politely. Speaking on MSNBC, Plouffe also offered two scenarios for the campaign and the party: One is for Biden to step down, which he said he did not think would happen. The second was that Biden somehow is able “to right the ship.”

He offered another observation about the two candidates as they appeared at the debate. “They are three years apart,” he said. “They seemed 30 years apart tonight.”

The president’s age has been his most significant liability throughout the campaign. Though Trump is 78 and Biden 81, polls show that many Americans see Biden as too old and not sharp enough mentally to serve another four years, and they do not see Trump the same way. Democrats who like and admire Biden share those concerns about his fitness, though most will support him in November as the alternative to Trump.

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Obama had a bad first debate in 2012, but he didn’t realize it when he came off the stage. His advisers told him otherwise and urged him to watch the tape of the session. Only then did he recognize how badly he had done. “I get it,” he told one adviser. Obama’s poor performance then did not pose the same existential threat as Biden’s on Thursday night. Still, will Biden make the same acknowledgment in the coming days?

The second and only other scheduled debate is Sept. 10, hosted by ABC News. Between now and then, Republicans meet for their convention in July in Milwaukee and Democrats meet for theirs in August in Chicago. Trump will be sentenced after his convictions in the New York case involving hush money and falsified business records. The Supreme Court will rule imminently on Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution. So there are big events ahead.

Will Biden want another debate? Will Trump agree if Biden wants one? Is another debate too big a gamble for the president, or the lifeline he can grasp just as early voting begins? Those decisions are in the future. For now, all eyes will be on the president.

Analysis | Can Biden recover from his damaging debate performance? (2025)

FAQs

Why is Joe Biden important? ›

A Leader in the Senate and 47th Vice President of the United States. As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, then-Senator Biden played a leading role addressing some of our nation's most important domestic and international challenges, including writing the Violence Against Women Act.

What is Biden's party? ›

In April 2023, Biden announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 presidential election, and is now the presumptive nominee.

When did Biden take office? ›

Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021.

What is Trump's platform? ›

The Republican Party's platform committee adopted a platform that closely reflects issues important to Donald Trump. The platform emphasizes initiatives like closing the border and ramping up deportations. Traditional Republican priorities like a national abortion ban and fiscal conservancy were downplayed.

Who was the youngest president of the US? ›

The youngest person to become U.S. president was Theodore Roosevelt, who, at age 42, succeeded to the office after the assassination of William McKinley. The oldest person inaugurated president was Joe Biden, at the age of 78.

Who is the oldest president? ›

President Joe Biden is the oldest U.S. president to date. The question of age has loomed heavily for Biden and remains a major point of contention in his 2024 presidential run. Biden will be 81 when voters cast their ballots in November, but by the next Inauguration Day in January 2025, he'll be 82 years old.

What did Obama do for the country? ›

In foreign policy, he increased US troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons with the United States–Russia New START treaty, and ended military involvement in the Iraq War.

What are the 5 requirements to be president? ›

Legal requirements for presidential candidates have remained the same since the year Washington accepted the presidency. As directed by the Constitution, a presidential candidate must be a natural born citizen of the United States, a resident for 14 years, and 35 years of age or older.

What has Biden done that is good? ›

Top Accomplishments
  • Lowering Costs of Families' Everyday Expenses.
  • More People Are Working Than At Any Point in American History.
  • Making More in America.
  • Rescued the Economy and Changed the Course of the Pandemic.
  • Rebuilding our Infrastructure.
  • Historic Expansion of Benefits and Services for Toxic Exposed Veterans.

What do Republicans believe in? ›

The positions of the Republican Party have evolved over time. Currently, the party's fiscal conservatism includes support for lower taxes, gun rights, government conservatism, free market capitalism, free trade, deregulation of corporations, and restrictions on labor unions.

What did Donald Trump study in college? ›

Trump received a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. His father named him president of his real estate business in 1971. Trump renamed it the Trump Organization and reoriented the company toward building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses.

What is a gop? ›

The Republican Party, also known as the GOP (Grand Old Party), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics ever since.

Why is the US president so important? ›

The President is both the head of state and head of government of the United States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is responsible for the execution and enforcement of the laws created by Congress.

What did President Biden do for a living? ›

In 1968, Biden earned a Juris Doctor degree from the university's College of Law, ranked 76th in his class of 85 students. He was admitted to the Delaware bar in 1969 and practiced as a lawyer before running for political office.

What has President Biden done that is good? ›

Top Accomplishments
  • Lowering Costs of Families' Everyday Expenses.
  • More People Are Working Than At Any Point in American History.
  • Making More in America.
  • Rescued the Economy and Changed the Course of the Pandemic.
  • Rebuilding our Infrastructure.
  • Historic Expansion of Benefits and Services for Toxic Exposed Veterans.

What are some interesting facts about Joe Biden? ›

Biden previously served as the 47th vice president of the United States (2009–17) in the Democratic administration of Pres. Barack Obama. He represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009, during which time he won reelection six times.

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