One year later: What Democrats learned from Biden’s fateful debate
A behind-the-scenes look at how Biden’s rocky performance fractured his institutional support, tested party unity and set off a three-week scramble that ultimately changed the course of history.
Former President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance on this day one year ago triggered an unprecedented crisis within the Democratic Party. The crisis played out in real time over three fraught weeks of public second-guessing, behind-the-scenes maneuvering and mounting calls for him to step aside.
Struggling to deliver clear answers, repeatedly losing his train of thought and appearing physically fatigued, Biden failed to reassure voters—and many of his own allies—that he was up to defeating President Donald Trump a second time.
What followed was a full-blown political reckoning. Hill Democrats privately panicked and publicly deflected, major donors began withholding funds, and editorial boards and Democratic strategists urged him to bow out. A slow drip of statements from members of Congress—particularly from swing-district Democrats—evolved from supportive but concerned to openly urging Biden to pass the torch.
Throughout the ordeal, former Vice President Kamala Harris stayed on script as she projected loyalty while quietly shoring up support from key blocs to ease her ultimate transition from second-in-command to party standardbearer.
Once Biden formally withdrew from the race in late July and endorsed Harris as his successor, she swiftly consolidated Democratic power centers and emerged as the presumptive nominee. The episode marked the most consequential intraparty upheaval since 1968—and reshaped the general election overnight.
I covered the debate from a watch party in D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood. The mood quickly turned from festive to somber, and the mostly millennial and Gen Z crowd was visibly distressed by President Biden’s halting delivery and verbal stumbles.
“Get it together, Joe,” one person said as others watched silently. “Come on now.”
The moment Biden declared, “We beat Medicare”—a likely flub meant to reference Medicare drug negotiations—was widely cited as emblematic of his incoherence that night and quickly went viral online.
Yet some attendees remained loyal.
“My granny mixes up me and my sister’s name all the time,” another party attendee told me. “But I know she knows who I am. All Trump does is lie! That’s what I care about.”
By the first commercial break, guests nervously reassured each other that there was still time to turn things around. But I knew from the texts I received from Democratic insiders, some of whom were already calling for Biden to step down, that the damage was done.