Despite poor debate performance and questions about age, FL Dems insist Biden remains their man

President Joe Biden, right, and the Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Quality Journalism for Critical Times

The day after President Joe Biden’s debate debacle in Atlanta, Florida Democrats willing to go on the record insisted he remains their only choice to defeat Donald Trump in November.

“I think yesterday was a loss all around,” said Jayden D’Onofrio, chairman of the Florida Future Leaders PAC, which represents Florida high school and college Democrats. “There’s no sugar coating it. I didn’t like what I saw. A number of people who I work with didn’t like what they saw and the general public didn’t like what they saw.”

But D’Onofrio emphasized that he wasn’t just speaking about Biden’s performance.

“It’s also about President Trump,” he said.

“lt’s like every single word that comes out of his mouth is to contribute to a lie in a larger sentence. Which is actually amazing. I’ve never seen somebody so constantly lie. I also recognized that President Biden was not as coherent as we would have liked. And I don’t think the debate really showed well to the American people.”

Former Congressman Alan Grayson, now running for the Florida Senate District 25 seat, which encompasses Osceola and a part of Orange County, said that having had a lot of personal contact with Joe Biden over the years he does have concerns about the president’s health after watching the debate.

But he underscored that it’s “less important what you say in 90 minutes on a stage than what you do in four years in office,” Grayson said.

“People sometimes think politics is a show,” he said in a phone conversation. “It’s not. It’s the rules which we live by.”

Grayson added that his daughter watched the Rolling Stones perform last night, noting that Mick Jagger will be 81 years old next month, the same age as the president.

“Mick Jagger doesn’t look like he’s 80, and doesn’t perform like it, but those two events were not the same thing,” Grayson said of comparing a rock concert to a presidential debate. “One of those events was meant to entertain people, and the other event was to inform them about who will lead the country better and make their own personal lives better in the next four years. Okay? And that hasn’t changed at all.”

“There’s no question, it was not a good night for Joe Biden,” said former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. “I think that there’s a lot of folks who are going to be watching this next week or two to see how he is. Was it really a bad night, or was it something more than that?”

Over-prepared

Kriseman is one Democrat pointing the finger at the president’s advisers, who spent a week with him at Camp David preparing for the debate. “If I was advising him, I wouldn’t have filled him up with as many details and facts as I think they tried to do. I almost think that was over-prepared, and that was part of the problem.”

Speaking during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon, Biden acknowleged that his debate performance was not up to par.

“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but … I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong, and I know how to do this job,” he said to a cheering crowd. “I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up.”

The Phoenix reached out to several local party chairs and other prominent Democrats, several of whom said they did not feel comfortable going on the record. One chair said the feedback he had received in the past 24 hours was “not good.”

However, Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Ione Townsend said she spent nearly an hour with the president when he spoke in Tampa in late April (and gave a 13-minute speech), and said she retained “absolute confidence in Joe Biden.”

“It’s one night,” she said of Biden’s performance against Donald Trump. “You can’t judge him on one night. What we need to judge him on is what he’s done for the American people, and all of his policies.”

Townsend referred to the fact that incumbent presidents from both political parties over the years have had rocky first debates, specifically referring to Barack Obama in 2012 and Ronald Reagan in 1984 — a line echoed by Leon County Democratic Chair Ryan Ray.

“I think we have a really, really terrifying nominee in Donald Trump, and everybody is all-hands-on deck to make sure that he isn’t able to inflict his dangerous, fascist vision on our great country,” Ray said.

However, he also said he understood the buzz amongst Democrats overnight that the party should consider having Biden voluntarily step down for a younger candidate.

“I definitely can understand that conversation,” Ray acknowledged. “I think that traditionally incumbent presidents tend to not do as well as the challenger, but I believe that the ticket will correct course and I think that the stakes are too high.”

Down-ballot drag

Democrats also shied away from acknowledging any concerns that Biden’s performance could reduce enthusiasm among Democrats voting in November, but one analyst said that has to be something they are contemplating.

“If Biden is perceived as being less able to motivate voters to turn out, it could hurt Democrats down ballot who are counting on a surge in turnout from the Democratic base for their own elections. A strong top-of-the-ballot campaign is very important to down-ballot races,” said Florida Atlantic University political science professor Kevin Wagner.

One of those down-ballot candidates who could be affected by Biden’s standing is Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the leading candidate to become the Democratic Party’s U.S. Senate candidate against Rick Scott.

“As he said, it was a tough night for the President, and over the course of the race and his campaign will need to continue to make the case for his reelection,” she said, adding that she will continue to focus on the same issues she has in her campaign, “lowering insurance rates and making sure Rick Scott can no longer threaten our Social Security and Medicare and reproductive rights.”

Kriseman figures it won’t be difficult for most Democrats to stand by Biden. “If it ends up being Biden vs. Trump, we cannot have Donald Trump for another four years,” he said. “I don’t think that our country can sustain that.”

There remain more than four months before the general election, but Trump is maintaining small but sustaining leads in many if not most of the battleground states and holds a slight lead nationally, according to the RealClearPolitics average. Trump rarely led in any national polls in his races for president in 2016 and 2020, and failed to win the popular vote in both campaigns.

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