The president and his backers are scrambling to assure voters of his mental fitness after the presidential debate.
Calls are mounting for US President Joe Biden to step aside as the Democratic Party candidate, following his poor performance in a presidential debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The 81-year-old president’s faltering presentation during the June 27 debate has sparked questions and doubts about his ability to lead for another four years. During the debate, Biden appeared to lose his train of thought and at times looked exhausted or confused.
A damage control campaign has since followed, with the president and his backers scrambling to assure voters that he is fit and won’t be stepping aside.
But some within the Democratic camp seem dissatisfied; the list of representatives calling for a Biden drop-out is now growing.
Here’s what we know about how the debate has affected Biden and who a replacement candidate might be:
Why did the debate affect Biden?
The most significant impact of Biden’s debate performance is that it intensified doubts about his capacity – which now threatens his ability to win the presidential elections in November, experts note. That adds to simmering dissatisfaction with how Biden’s government has handled inflation, the Gaza war and immigration on the southern border with Mexico.
An Ipsos poll showed that after the presidential debate, voter confidence in Biden’s mental fitness dropped from 28 percent to 20 percent.
Presidential debates have been an important part of US elections since first airing in 1960 and have proved crucial in shifting voters towards the better speaker.
After the Sunday debate, voter preferences have shifted towards Trump by an average of 3.5 points, according to one analysis by the Brookings Institution, a US think-tank. Prior to the debate, Trump was ahead of Biden by an average of 1.5 points.
