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A apical advisor to erstwhile President Joe Biden said the Democratic Party "melted down" aft his mediocre show successful the June 2024 statement against President Donald Trump and insisted Biden should person remained the party's candidate.
Biden's unsmooth show and anemic dependable astatine the CNN Presidential Debate sparked immense fearfulness astir his re-election odds, and the left's apical leaders called connected him to retreat from the race.
Biden was replaced arsenic the Democratic campaigner by Vice President Kamala Harris little than a period aboriginal connected July 21. She mislaid to Trump successful the 2024 statesmanlike election.
"Now, tons of radical person unspeakable debates," erstwhile Biden elder advisor Mike Donilon said during a treatment astatine Harvard University. "Lots of radical person unspeakable debates. Usually the enactment doesn't suffer its mind, but that's what happened here. It melted down."
CNN and the BBC ran headlines calling the show "disastrous" and "incoherent."
"If Joe Biden loses November’s election, past volition grounds that it took conscionable 10 minutes to destruct a presidency," CNN elder newsman Stephen Collinson wrote successful an article. "It was wide a governmental catastrophe was astir to unfold arsenic soon arsenic the 81-year-old commandant successful main stiffly shuffled connected signifier successful Atlanta."
Collinson went connected to picture Biden giving the weakest show successful televised statement history.
New York Times columnist and Biden protagonist Thomas Friedman wrote the debate made him "weep" and called connected Biden to measurement aside.
"I cannot retrieve a much heartbreaking infinitesimal successful American statesmanlike run authorities successful my beingness — precisely due to the fact that of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a bully antheral and a bully president, has nary concern moving for re-election," Friedman wrote.
BIDEN RIPPED FOR ‘OLD’ APPEARANCE, ‘WEAK’ VOICE DURING FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ‘DEEPLY ALARMING’
Donilon, who has known Biden for much than 4 decades, described the Democratic Party's absorption arsenic "insane."
"I deliberation the enactment mislaid its mind," helium said. "If you inquire radical astir this play of time, they'll archer you Biden was losing the polls, helium was going to lose. … They were saying this successful a margin-of-error race."
He added helium had ne'er seen a concern wherever a campaigner was down 3 points nationally successful the summertime of a wide predetermination and his enactment decided helium could not win.
"But that's what happened, right?" Donilon said. "If you really spell and look astatine the polling successful the archetypal mates of days aft the debate, the borderline betwixt Trump and Biden got closer. It didn't get bigger."
He discussed absorption groups that convened connected the nighttime of the debate, noting portion they believed Trump won overall, they voiced concerns astir some candidates.
"They volition accidental they're disquieted astir Biden's age, but they'll besides accidental thing else," Donilon said. "They were truly disquieted astir Trump. They were disquieted astir the information helium said helium wouldn't judge the results of the election. They were disquieted that helium said, ‘I had thing to bash with Jan. 6.' The consciousness from him was that helium was not connected the broadside of people."
What truly happened, according to Donilon, was not arsenic devastating arsenic the accepted contented became.
"I said this to Biden the greeting aft the debate: Sometimes you tin suffer the run astir the campaign," helium said. "And that's what happened to us."
He insisted the erstwhile president was not mentally impaired but acknowledged the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal successful 2021 and ostentation contributed to Biden's downfall.
Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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