Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump hopes that his rival, US President Joe Biden, will not withdraw his candidacy after his disastrous TV debate performance, the Washington Post has reported, citing anonymous sources.
According to the Post, Democrats have been “plunged into panic” over Biden’s “poor showing” at last week’s TV debate with Trump, questioning his ability “to execute the campaign or serve another four years,” and even seeking to replace him with someone else.
While Trump and his campaign expect Biden to stay in the race they have begun preparing for the possibility of facing a different opponent, the Post reported on Thursday, citing “four people familiar with private discussions.” The Post has traditionally been hostile to Trump and close to the US Democrats.
“It sure seems they want Biden to stay on the ticket,” David Axelrod, a long-time Democratic strategist, told the Post. “They think he’s vulnerable, and they like where they’re at. You can see they are not excited at all about the prospect of him leaving the race.”
Quotes from named Republicans don’t seem to support Axelrod’s claim, however. Taylor Budowich, head of the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. political action committee, told the Post that clips from last Thursday’s debate “would make for devastating campaign commercials” but that the possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the nominee “has the ad team cackling with excitement.”
“We are confident no matter what that we will be victorious in tying any Democrat on the ballot to Biden and to the Democratic Party,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the outlet.
Trump himself has said he would campaign “whether it’s him [Biden] or somebody else,” and that “nobody else is doing any better” in the polls, the Post noted, citing two of his radio interviews on Monday.
A video of Trump that made rounds on social media on Wednesday showed the former and possibly future US president declaring that he “kicked that old, broken down pile of crap” – meaning, Biden – in the debate.
“He’s quitting the race. I got him out of there. And that means we have Kamala. I think she’s going to be better. She’s so bad. She’s so pathetic. She’s just so f*****g bad,” Trump says in the video, published by another traditionally hostile outlet, the Daily Beast.
Meanwhile, the Post has reported that top Democrats have given Biden a “grim ultimatum” to either quickly prove he is fit to rule and run, or be replaced by someone else.
Until last week, most US media outlets insisted that the 81-year-old Biden was “sharp as a tack” and perfectly fine. The debate hosted by CNN showed Americans otherwise.
One senior Democrat told Politico that “no one expected this nosedive,” describing it as “bad on message, bad on substance, bad on counter-punching, bad on presentation, bad on non-verbals. There was no bright spot in this debate for him.”